
Copyright}) 



VL2 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE 

By 

Henry Edward Tralle, M. A., Th. D. 

u 
Professor of Religions Pedagogy, Hardin College 



A First Standard Teacher-Training Textbook 



Hardin College Press 
Mexico, Missouri 






Copyrighted, 1913, by 

HENRY EDWARD TRALLE 

Published March, 1913 



©CLA343776 



FOREWORD 



This is a First Standard teacher-training 
course, and a diploma may be secured on its sat- 
isfactory completion upon application to the 
state association. 

The first ten lessons deal with the teacher, the 
second ten with the pupil, the third ten with 
the school and the last twenty with the Bible. 
The first thirty lessons are based on modern 
psychology. 

This is not a mere drill book, a succession of 
dry facts, but a presentation of fundamental 
principles with practical applications. The 
author has sought to make the treatment com- 
plete, though not exhaustive — to present in 
clear, interesting form the best results of mod- 
ern scholarship and practical experience. 

The students should first read the chapter 
and then work out the questions and sugges- 
tions under "Writing and Discussion." The 
course may be taken without reference to oth- 



er books, but it will yield the best returns only 
to those who read at least a part of the refer- 
ences. Every student should own a library of 
the books recommended, and certainly every 
training class should have access to such a 
library. 



CONTENTS 



Lesson Page 

I. Learning from Experience 9 

I I. The Laws of Teaching 16 

HI. Method* of Teaching 23 

I V. Methods of Teaching SO 

V. Story-Telling in Teaching 87 

VI. Story-Telling in Teaching 43 

VH. Preparing the Lesson 49 

VIII. The Graded Lessons 56 

IX. Getting and Holding Attention 64 

X. Sunday School Evangelism 74 

XI. Pupils First in Importance 83 

XII. The Laws of the Mind SO 

XIII. Cradle Roll Babies 98 

XIV. Work with Beginners 108 

XV. The Primary Department 120 

XVI. Junior Boys and Girls 1 29 

XVII. The Big Boy 140 

XVIII. Intermediate Girls 151 

XIX. The Senior Pupils 1C2 

XX. The Advanced Pupils 173 

XXI. The Organization of Sunday School. . .182 

XXII. Sunday School Management 1% 

XXIII. The Sunday Program 198 



XXIV. Training the Teachers 206 

XXV. Building up the School 215 

XXVI. Records and Finances 223 

XXVII. Special Days and Occasions 281 

XXVIII. Missions in the Sunday School 239 

XXIX. The Building and Its Equipment 247 

XXX. History of the Sunday School 255 

XXXI. The Bible Described 263 

XXXII. Books of the Old Testament Grouped 267 

XXXIII. Books of the New Testament Grouped 27i 

XXXIV. Sources of Our Bible 274 

XXXV. English Versions of the Bible 277 

XXXVI. The Apocryphal Books 281 

XXXVII. The Bible from God 284 

XXXVIII. The Bible as Literature 288 

XXXIX. The Bible by Periods 292 

XL. The Old Testament World 296 

XLI. The Old Testament by Books 300 

XLII. Studying the Psalms 304 

XLIII. The New Testament by Books 307 

XLIV. The Homeland of Jesus 311 

XLV. The Life of Jesus 314 

XLVI. The Early Day© of Christianity 318 

XLVII. The Life of Paul 321 

XLVIII. Bible Institutions and Ordinances 325 

XLIX. Jewish Meeting-Places 329 

h. Methods of Bible Study 332 



LESSON I 
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 

"Experience is the best teacher" — when it 
is the other fellow's experience. One's own 
experience is too narrow and crooked to be 
valuable. It needs to be filled out and 
straightened out by the experiences of others. 
One's individual experience needs to become 
a composite experience, made up of the ex- 
periences of the many. 

1. One's Own Experience Too Limited 

If one could live a thousand years, and work 
in the Sunday-school all that time, he might 
learn something worth while, relying on his 
own individual experience. But one can work 
usually only about twenty-five years in the 
Sunday-school, on the average, and that is too 
short a time in which to learn very much from 
one's individual experience alone. 

Now, if one will add to his own twenty-five 
years' experience that of thirty-uine other 
workers each with twenty-five years of ex- 
perience, he will have a thousand years' ex- 
perience. And he should not wait until the 



10 Sunday School Experience 

end of the twenty-five years to get this ex- 
perience from others, because then it will be 
too late to do him any good. The sooner in his 
period of twenty-five years' Sunday-school 
activity he begins to lay hold of the ex- 
periences of others, the better it will be for 
him and his work. 

2. Composite Experience Lessens Mistakes 

Many of our mistakes are due to our ignor- 
ance of the experiences of others. If we had 
known of the mistakes of others, we might 
have avoided these mistakes and the conse- 
quent failures. A broad experience that in- 
cludes the experiences of many workers will 
enable us to avoid making mistakes. 

One may excuse his failure by saying, 
"Well, I did the best I could." But he did not 
do the best he could if he was too lazy or too 
indifferent to lay hold of the experiences of 
others and to profit by their mistakes. One 
may seek to lay the blame for his failure upon 
one of the other workers or upon the pupils, 
whereas the blame is mainly with himself. - He 
failed to take a training course, to get sug- 
gestions from the Sunday-school periodicals 
and books, to attend Sunday-school institutes 
and conventions. 



Learning From Experience 11 

One may say, "Well, I guess I was not cut 
out for Sunday-school work anyway, and I am 
going to quit." But that will not help matters. 
Such an one would be like the Irishman who 
went up in a captive balloon in an amusement 
park in Chicago. The old man was keen for 
the ascent until the balloon got up to what he 
considered a dangerous altitude. Then he 
turned to the man in charge and shouted: 
"Lave me out! Av ye don't, 111 cut the rope!" 
The Sunday-school worker may cut the rope, 
he may quit, but think of the consequences! 

3. Original Work Possible with Larger Experience 

A Sunday-school worker was heard to say: 
"I never read anything that is written on 
Sunday-school work; I believe a man ought to 
be original and do his work in his own way." 
Now, as a matter of fact, he was not original, 
not at all. He was not doing the thing in his 
own way. He was doing it in the poor old way 
of another whom he had unconsciously copied. 
He was deep down in a rut. He might as well 
have been dead and buried so far as any good 
he was doing was concerned. 

He who is truly original knows what others 
are doing and how they are doing it. He can- 
not do things in his own way until he knows 
the ways of others. He must know the ways 



12 Sunday School Experience 

of others, and then work in his own way, tak- 
ing the methods of others as starting points, 
suggestions, inspirations. 

The wide-awake worker keeps himself in- 
formed as to the methods of others, and will 
lay hold of the good wherever he finds it, 
changing, adapting, making it his own, and 
occasionally he will work out something new. 
The only kind of originality that is worth any- 
thing in Sunday-school work is that which 
grows out of a composite experience. 

4. Giyes Confidence and Enthusiasm 

The trained worker, the one who has a com- 
posite experience, goes forward with a confi- 
dence and enthusiasm that is impossible to him 
who relies wholly on his own experience. He 
can do more work and better work, in less 
time, with less effort and more pleasure, be- 
cause he works intelligently. The untrained 
worker may do a great deal of good in his 
blundering way, but he would do more good if 
he had training. 

This always was true, and it is getting more 
emphatically true all the time, because it is 
getting harder to do good Sunday-school 
work. Conditions are changing. Pupils have 
better training in the week-day schools. There 
are more things to keep people away from 



Learning From Experience 13 

Sunday-school. There is more competition. 
Other Sunday-schools have adopted approved 
methods, and the school that does not do this 
will lag behind. 

It used to be that anybody could make a 
living on a farm in Missouri, whether he knew 
much about farming or not. But that time has 
gone by. The population has increased, farms 
are smaller, and competition is stronger. The 
farmer who succeeds today employs scientific 
methods. He knows something of the chem- 
istry of soils, practices rotation of crops, 
studies methods of planting and plowing and 
harvesting, uses improved machinery. He 
cannot any more make a crop really than could 
his grandfather. God must give the crop, but 
He gives the biggest crop to the man with the 
best methods. 

A farmer in one of the counties of Missouri 
had taken a brief course in the agricultural 
department of the state university, and was 
trying to put into practice the approved scien- 
tific methods. He plowed deep and made a 
good seed bed, planted selected seed corn, and 
did shallow cultivating. During the dry sea- 
son of 1911, he cultivated his corn ten times, 
just stirring the top of the ground. He raised 
a big crop, while a neighbor who despised "the 
new-fangled notions of them university fel- 



14 Sunday School Experience 

lers" and who had plowed his corn only three 
times, plowing deep, had an almost total crop 
failure. 

So in spiritual agriculture, it is God who 
gives the increase, but He gives the biggest 
harvest of souls to those who use the best 
methods, other things being equal — especially 
in a dry season. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Interpret the statement, "Experience is 
the best teacher." 

2. What of the limits of one's own 
experience ? 

3. How may we avoid making many mis- 
takes ? 

4. What is included in doing the best one 
can? 

5. How may we get hold of the experiences 
of others? 

6. What is necessary to enable one to do 
original work? 

7. Why does the worker with the composite 
experience have more confidence and enthu- 
siasm ? 

8. Tell of a mistake in Sunday-school work, 
your own or another's, that might have been 
avoided. 



Learning From Experience 15 

What Others Say 
See the chapter on "Factors in Sunday 
School Success" in Cope's "The Modern Sun- 
day School," pages 195-201, and also the chap- 
ter on "Training the Working Forces," pages 
169-183. See also the chapter on "The Teach- 
er's Work and Training" in Weigle's "The 
Pupil and the Teacher," pages 9-13. 



16 Sunday School Experience 



LESSON II 

THE LAWS OF TEACHING 

The laws of teaching are based on the laws 
of mind. The laws of teaching are what they 
are because the mind is what it is. The laws 
of teaching have been discovered and worked 
out gradually in the experiences of many good 
teachers, and all of them are exemplified in the 
teaching of Jesus. 

1. The Law of Mind 

The pupil 's head is not a bucket. If it were, 
the work of the teacher would consist simply in 
pouring truth into the bucket. When the 
bucket got full, the pupil would be taught for 
all time. The pupil's mind is not a sack to be 
stuffed full of truth. It is not a basket to be 
filled with facts. It is not a pigeonhole into 
which information may be thrust. The mind is 
not a pure white page upon which we may write 
what we please. It is not clay to be molded 
at will. It is not a block of marble to be chis- 
eled into any form which the teacher may 
choose. 

The mind is active, and back of it there is a 



The Laws of Teaching 17 

personality. All the teacher can do is to help, 
suggest, awaken, guide. It is the chief business 
of the teacher to get the pupil to use his mind, 
to think for himself. 

2. Tiie Law of Language 

The teacher must use the language of the 
pupil. If the pupil speaks only Greek, the 
teacher must speak Greek. If the pupil speaks 
English, the teacher must speak English — the 
kind of English the pupil understands. Fre- 
quently the pupil does not know what the 
teacher is talking about because the words used 
are not in the pupil's vocabulary, are words 
for which the pupil has no concepts. They 
mean nothing to him. 

A teacher of little children said: "Sit up 
straight, children. If you do not, you might 
get tuberculosis. ' ' When little Helen got home 
she told her mother that the teacher said that 
all of them would get well if they would sit 
up straight and have two locomotives. A little 
girl came home from Sunday-school and said: 
' ' Mamma, what are 'possums ? " " 'Possums ! 
Why, what do you mean, child?" exclaimed 
her mother. "Why, my teacher at Sunday- 
school told about the twelve 'possums, ' ' replied 
the little girl. The teacher ought to have ex- 
plained the word "apostles" to the pupils. 



18 Sunday School Experience 

Even short words need to be explained, some- 
times. 

3. The Law of Attention 

There are two kinds of attention, voluntary 
and involuntary. Involuntary attention is that 
given without effort. Voluntary attention is 
that which one wills to give. Voluntary atten- 
tion is more important from the standpoint of 
the pupil, but the teacher must rely mainly on 
involuntary attention. The teacher, then, must 
make his teaching interesting. He must ap- 
peal to the eye and the hand as well as to the 
ear. 

He must have variety in his teaching. Let 
him begin one time with a story, another time 
with a question, then with a blackboard illus- 
tration, and again with some kind of hand- 
work. There are many good methods that may 
be used. Somehow, some way, the teacher 
must gain and hold attention, must have the 
pupils stretching out their minds towards the 
truth. 

4. The Law of Interest 

In addition to making his teaching interest- 
ing through variety, the teacher must appeal 
to the interests of the pupils. He must hitch 



The Laws of Teaching 19 

his interest in the lesson onto the pupils' inter- 
est in something else. One Sunday morning 
the superintendent of a beginners' department 
found the children all excitement over a bal- 
loon ascension which they had seen the day 
previous. She found there was no use trying 
to teach the lesson with so much balloon in their 
minds. She dropped the lesson and took up 
the balloon and, when she had gotten it well 
started up, hitched the lesson onto it and sent 
it up with it. The pupil may be interested in 
baseball or circus, but, whatever it may be, the 
teacher must get interested in that too, and 
start with that in teaching — start with it, but 
not stay with it. 

5. The Law of Expression 

The pupil really learns only what he ex- 
presses. It is the teacher's business to get the 
pupil to express himself in word and deed. 
This may be done through questions, through 
the assignment of essays to write or questions 
to look up, through the making of maps and 
other handwork by the pupil. 

Much will depend, of course, on the age of 
the pupil as to the method employed in secur- 
ing expression. In the case of adults, class 
organization will afford means of securing the 
self-expression of the pupils in useful activities. 



20 Sunday School Experience 

Learning by doing is the best learning. We do 
not help the pupils when we do for them, but 
when we get them to do for themselves, and 
for others. 

6. The Law of ReYiew 

We remember those things that are deeply 
impressed upon the mind and that are associ- 
ated with other things. These two things, im- 
pression and association, are secured largely by 
means of proper review. Lesson should be con- 
nected with lesson, and truth with truth, over 
and over again. This should not be done in 
any merely formal way, but the review should 
be of such a character as to constitute a new 
view. There should be a new method of state- 
ment, a new story, a new question, to impress 
anew the old truth. And, in some cases, there 
should be much drill work. This is true 
especially of memory work, as in the memoriz- 
ing of selected passages of Scripture, the names 
of the books of the Bible, and brief statements 
of fundamental truths. There should be more 
or less of review work of some kind in every 
lesson. 

7. The Law of Practice 

It is important to get the pupils to accept the 
truth, but it is far more important to get them 



The Laws of Teaching 21 

to practice the truth. The attitude of the true 
teacher towards his pupils and himself should 
he: "What does this passage of Scripture say? 
What does it mean? What does it mean to 
you ? What are you going to do with it ? " The 
teacher must try to answer these questions in 
a right way for himself, and get the pupils to 
answer them for themselves. The teacher must 
teach by practice as well as by precept. The 
pupils learn more by imitation than by absorp- 
tion. They must be shown how to turn the 
teaching into trying, the doctrine into doing, 
the Law into life. 

The pupils are not to be saved by simply 
learning the lessons, by acquiring a creed, by 
being founded in the faith. The learning must 
become living; the creed must become charac- 
ter; the faith must fight for principle. The 
good teacher realizes that Christianity is partly 
negative, but mainly positive, and that, while 
pupils should not do certain things, they should 
do certain other things; and that, first of all, 
they must be in order to do. So the teacher 
must try to be and to do. It is not expected 
that any teacher will be perfect, but it is abso- 
lutely necessary that every teacher shall be 
honestly trying to practice the lessons he 
teaches. 



22 Sunday School Experience, 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Upon what are the laws of teaching 
based? 

2. What are some things the pupil's mind 
is not? 

3. Give a statement of the law of language. 

4. Name the two kinds of attention. Which 
is the more important for the teacher ? 

5. How may involuntary attention be 
secured ? 

6. State the law of interest. 

7. State the law of expression. 

8. Give a statement as to the importance of 
review. 

9. Give an illustration of the law of prac- 
tice from your own experience or observation. 

What Others Say 



See Gregory's "Seven Laws of Teaching," 
and the chapter on "Morality and Eeligion" 
in Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teacher," 
pages 89-99. See also the chapter on "Ped- 
agogical Ruts" in Well's "Sunday School 
Essentials," pages 123-129. 



LESSON III 

METHODS OF TEACHING 

' ' Methods are many, principles few ; methods 
may vary, principles never do." There is no 
one best method. Methods must meet the 
needs of the pupils. Some methods will prove 
effective with one class of pupils, and other 
methods with another class. Methods also will 
vary from time to time with the same pupils. 
Not all the methods can be used at any one 
time. The teacher must learn to select the 
best method or methods. 

1. Quarterly Method 

The quarterly method is probably the poor- 
est of all methods. The teacher holds a quar- 
terly in his hand, and each of the pupils also 
has a quarterly. The teacher reads a ques- 
tion from the quarterly, and the pupil reads the 
answer from his quarterly. There is little 
real education in this sort of thing. It involves 
scarcely any effort on the part of either teacher 
or pupils. It is a lazy, ineffective method. 

As a matter of fact, the quarterly should not 
be used in the class at all, except very rarely. 



24 Sunday School Experience 

The quarterly should be used at home, and 
kept there. If the teacher has anything in his 
hands, it should be a Bible or some notes he has 
made for his guidance. Pupils may have Bibles 
or something else that will help, and not hinder 
as do quarterlies. A "Bible class" without a 
Bible in it, is an amusing spectacle. 

2. Catechetical Method 

This is the method used in teaching a cate- 
chism. The questions are to be asked jast as 
they are printed, and each question has its 
answer to be memorized by the pupil. It is 
mainly a matter of memory, though explanation 
may be given by the teacher. This method has 
a larger place in the churches with authorita- 
tive creeds than in the non-credal churches, 
but may have a rightful place in any church as 
one method of teaching the truth. 

The best time for the teaching of a catechism 
is during the junior period, when the pupils 
are from nine to twelve years of age. This is 
the great memory period. In any case, only a 
small portion of any one teaching period 
should be spent with a catechism. 

3. Drill Method 

The drill may take the form of a catechism 



Methods of Teaching 25 

drill, as has just been indicated. It may be a 
drill on the names of the books of the Bible, 
on the names of the apostles, on finding verses 
or longer passages, on locating biographies in 
the Bible, on the use of the Bible concordance, 
index, atlas, or dictionary. These drills should 
be short. The pupils may be drilled also in 
memorizing some of the great hymns, both new 
and old. 

In the memorizing of Scripture and hymns, 
the teacher should try to get the pupils to un- 
derstand what they memorize, as far as that is 
possible at their stage of development. What 
is being memorized should be repeated a num- 
ber of times at first, and then again from time 
to time until it is fixed in the mind perma- 
nently. 

4. Verse -by-Yerse Method 

The teacher says, ''Read the first verse. 
What do you think that means V So with the 
next verse, and on through. This method 
should never be used with pupils under thir- 
teen years of age, and not often with the older 
pupils. When used at all, it should be only 
with certain didactic portions of Scripture, as 
the Epistles. 

The danger of this method is "spiritualiz- 
ing, ' ' the putting in of a spiritual meaning that 



26 Sunday School Experience 

is not there. We read, in Matthew 14 :17, "We 
have here but five loaves and two fishes. ' ' Now, 
what is the meaning of "five" and "two"? 
The meaning is that there are five and two. 
That is all. There is no spiritual meaning. 
The account of the feeding of the five thousand, 
taken as a whole, teaches a number of good 
practical lessons. It is not necessary to try to 
pull one out of each verse. 

5. Lecture Method 

The teacher is a lecturer. He does all the 
talking. He delivers a lecture, or expository 
sermon. This is a method to be used only 
occasionally, when nothing better can be done. 
Usually it will not be necessary to use this 
method with more than one class in a Sunday- 
school, one composed of college students or 
others who are too busy to do any studying, 
or who do not choose to do any studying. The 
teacher who would succeed as a lecturer must 
be able to say something all the time, and to 
say it in an interesting way. 

6„ Picture Method 

Pictures get attention, awaken interest, im- 
press the truth and aid the memory. The 
pictures used should be selected with a view 



Methods of Teaching 27 

to the pupils' development and religious needs. 
For the beginners, three to five years of age, 
select simple colored representations of nature 
and life, teaching a father's love and care, 
obedience, primary ethical duties. For primary 
pupils, about six to eight years of age, select 
pictures of action which tell a story. For the 
other departments, select pictures of great 
characters, important incidents, implements of 
industry or war, articles of dress, travel and 
scenery. 

Prints of great paintings may be obtained 
for from one-half cent to twenty-five cents 
each. The Perry, Tissot, and Wilde pictures 
are popular. The stereoscope and stereographs 
are valuable, and not very expensive. The 
stereopticon may be used with profit occasion- 
ally, at the end of the quarter or year. Slides 
and lanterns may be rented. 

7. Object Method 

Objects may be used to suggest the thoughts 
which we wish to arouse in the minds of the 
pupils. Objects may be used as follows: (1) 
Common objects of today to represent objects 
of Bible times, as crackers or hardtack and 
sardines or herring to represent the "five loaves 
and two fishes." (2) Models of oriental san- 
dals, sheepfold, well curb, water jar, etc, (3) 



28 Sunday School Experience 

Ribbons or sticks of different lengths to repre- 
sent proportions, as amount given to missions 
contrasted with amounts spent for strong 
drink, tobacco, and chewing gum. (4) Sym- 
bols, as silk handkerchiefs of different colors 
to represent the verses in the Lord's prayer. 
This method may tend to cover up rather than 
reveal the truth, especially when the object is 
made to stand for an abstract idea. (5) Ob- 
jects that teach by analogy, as a watch to repre- 
sent a boy, attention being called to the like- 
nesses and differences. Teaching by analogy 
has its dangers. The object used as an illustra- 
tion may become more prominent in the mind 
of the pupil than the truth itself. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why should the teacher vary his method ? 

2. Why is the quarterly method a bad 
method? 

3. When may the catechetical method be 
used? 

4. When is the drill method valuable? 
Why? 

5. What is the danger in the verse-by-verse 
method ? 

6. To what sort of class is the lecture 
method best adapted? 

7. Why should pictures be used in teaching, 



Methods of Teaching 29 

and what is the principle of selection? 

8. For what purpose may objects be used in 
teaching ? 

.What Otheks Say 

See the chapter on "Methods of Teaching" 
in Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teacher," 
pages 112-119. For catalogues and prices of 
pictures and models, write to your denomi- 
national publishing house, and also get the 
handbook on method and equipment, "Sunday 
School Advance," price 14 cents, postpaid, The 
Bible School Exhibit, Winsted, Conn. There 
are interesting chapters on "Bible Drills" and 
"How to Use Objects in Teaching" in Well's 
"Sunday School Essentials." 



30 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON IV 

METHODS OF TEACHING 

In the last chapter, seven methods of teach- 
ing were considered. In this chapter, five other 
methods are considered. 

8. Manual Method 

"Manual method means the enlistment of 
the pupil's self-activities by the use of his 
hands in the work of the class." "The forms 
of handwork will vary with the ages of the 
scholars, and the work will be adjusted to their 
abilities." In the beginners and primary de- 
partments, up to the ninth year, where the ap- 
peal is to the imagination and the senses, 
through story-telling, the handwork will have 
to do with the picturing of the stories, and will 
take the form of the handling of models, 
picture making on a sand-table, picture pasting 
and coloring, paper tearing, and the writing of 
titles and texts. 

In the junior and. intermediate departments, 
after the day schools have laid the foundations 
for history and geography work, the handwork 
will take the form of modeling and molding in 
paper pulp, clay and plasticine, the making of 



Methods of Teaching 31 

physical, political and historical maps, and the 
writing of stories and biographies with illus- 
trative and decorative work. In the senior and 
advanced departments, the handwork will take 
the form of essay writing, thesis work, black- 
board work, and the harmonization of biblical 
texts. 

The cost of handwork is not great. The 
school will need to provide sand, plasticine, 
note-books, paste, a few pairs of shears, some 
colored paper, string, and a few other things. 
Most of the materials can be made by the pupils 
themselves when they once get a start. They 
can make the models, the paper pulp, the trays, 
the stands, and the boxes, in the home or in 
the church work-room. In connection with the 
graded lessons, directions are given and materi- 
als are furnished or suggested for handwork. 
The manual method is not more difficult than 
other methods, and it does not require any 
more time. The Sunday-school that does not 
use manual methods is behind the times. 

9. Blackboard Method 

Every teacher should have a blackboard. 
Every teacher may learn how to use a black- 
board if he will. It is a mistake to think that 
one needs to be an artist in order to use the 
blackboard effectively in teaching. It can be 



32 Sunday School Experience 

done by anyone with a little practice. Simple 
outlines will aid the imagination of the pupils 
in the beginners and primary departments to 
form images in their minds of persons and ob- 
jects. 

Suppose the story is "A Little Boy and His 
Lunch," in the feeding of the five thousand. 
An outline of a boy may be made with five 
strokes, or even with one. Five circles or 
squares may be drawn for the loaves. The 
fishes may be a little more difficult, but anyone 
ought to be able to draw two outlines that will 
help the children to see two fishes. 

For the juniors, one may write the hard 
words and the names of characters upon the 
board, to aid the memory, and also lesson facts 
drawn from the class. Pupils of this age will 
be interested in blackboard work that has in it 
the element of surprise, wherein the outline is 
changed into something else by an added stroke 
or two. Take the word pride, for instance, and 
enlarge the i until it becomes the upright beam 
of a cross, and then cover the other letters with 
the cross beam, talking as you work, to show 
how the pride in the heart may be covered with 
the cross of Christ.. The symbolism in this 
illustration may be too abstract for the younger 
juniors. For older pupils, an outline of the 
lesson may be written upon the board, or the 



Methods of Teaching 33 

practical truths of the lesson may be emphasiz- 
ed in an acrostic. 

10. Kesearch Method 

In the use- of this method, the teacher is not 
a talker at all, except incidentally. The teacher 
is simply the leader of a group of investigators. 

Suppose the lesson were the feeding of the 
five thousand. One member of the class would 
get all the facts as given in the gospel of Mat- 
thew and write them down in a succession of 
brief statements in his own language. Another 
would do the same with Mark's account, a 
third with Luke's account, and a fourth with 
John's. One member of the class would look 
up the references and report on these. Another 
would consult the commentaries and Bible dic- 
tionaries on "loaves and fishes," "passover," 
"Bethsaida," "lake of Galilee," etc. Yet 
another member of the class would exercise his 
constructive imagination in filling in details. 
Still another would find illustrative material. 
Then all together would construct the story of 
the lesson, and discuss its practical teachings. 

The work undertaken might be more difficult 
than that here indicated, and might involve 
questions of criticism. This method should 
not be used exclusively except by. a mature 
class and a trained teacher. With such a class 



34 Sunday School Experience 

and teacher, however, it is a most valuable 
method. The method may be used to some ex- 
tent with any class of pupils over seventeen 
years of age. 

11. Recitation Method 

This method makes use of most 01 tne 
methods that have been named. The illustra- 
tion given in the preceding paragraph will also 
serve as an illustration of the recitation 
method. The recitation method requires the 
co-operation of- the pupil. It involves the fol- 
lowing things: (1) That the teacher shall 
keep at least a week ahead in his lesson 
preparation, plan beforehand, and assign a 
definite, appropriate task to the pupil; (2) 
That the teacher get the pupil to do home 
studying on the assignment by arousing inter- 
est beforehand, by suggestion as to how to 
make preparation, and by personal inquiry 
later in the week; (3) That the teacher, on the 
following Sunday, have the pupil report in the 
class on the assignment, and show appreciation 
of the work done; (4) That the teacher make 
the report of the pupil the basis for class dis- 
cussion and the application of practical truths ; 
(5) That the teacher make a real addition to 
what has been learned by the pupil; (6) That 
the teacher stimulate discussion by questions — 



Methods of Teaching 35 

questions that are clear, definite, short, search- 
ing, thought-provoking. 

12. Story Method 

It has been said that the story method is the 
most important of all the methods. Certainly 
every teacher ought to strive to become a good 
story-teller. In the elementary grades, the 
story must form the basis of all the teaching. 
In the higher grades, the story of the lesson 
may serve as an introduction frequently, and 
stories from outside the lesson, both biblical 
and extra-biblical, may be introduced as illus- 
trations. In fact, whatever the class, it is 
necessary to make use of the story in some 
form, in connection with other methods, in 
order to do the best teaching. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is meant by the manual method? 

2. In what ways may the blackboard be 
used in teaching juniors? 

3. To what classes of pupils is the research 
method adapted? 

4. Name three things involved in the recita- 
tion method. 

5. With what grade of pupils is the story 
method most necessary? 



36 Sunday School Experience 

6. What method have you most used or 
seen most used T 

7. Give an illustration of some one of the 
twelve methods, from your own experience or 
that of someone else. 

What Others Say 

For suggestions as to handwork and prices 
on materials, see "Sunday School Advance," 
referred to in the preceding lesson. Also see 
chapter on "Manual Methods" in Cope's "The 
Modern Sunday School," pages 112-123. Also 
see the book, "Hand-Work in the Sunday 
School," by Littlefield. On blackboard work, 
see Darnell's "The Blackboard Class," Wood's 
"Chalk," and Pierce's "Pencil Points." 



LESSON V 
STORY-TELLING IN TEACHING 

Jesus, the great teacher, was a master story- 
teller, and he who would follow Jesus as a 
teacher must learn how to tell stories and how 
to make a wise use of them in teaching. "The 
stories of the Gospels have done infinitely more 
to influence the lives of men than all the books 
on systematic theology that the church has 
produced in twenty centuries of time." 

1. The Power of the Story 

The story presents abstract truth in con- 
crete form. It is a most effective method in 
teaching because of the following facts: 

(1) It appeals to the imagination. The story 
enables the mind to image, to picture, the 
truth. By putting the truth in concrete form, 
the story causes it to be seen, realized, under- 
stood, apprehended. The pupil sees himself in 
the story, without at first realizing that it is 
himself. He sees things in their proper rela- 
tions. He forms correct images, he actually 
sees the truth. Prof. John Dewey says: "I 



38 Sunday School Experience 

believe that if nine-tenths of the energy at 
present directed towards making the child 
learn certain things were spent in seeing to it 
that the child was forming proper images, the 
work of instruction would be indefinitely 
f aciliated. ' ' 

(2) It appeals to the emotions. The story 
arouses love, hate, disgust, sympathy, admira- 
tion, and other emotions. Action is largely de- 
termined by emotion, and it is of the highest 
importance that there be aroused in the pupils 
the proper emotions. This may be done most 
effectively through the story. Nathan brought 
David, the adulterer and murderer, to repent- 
ance through a story that appealed to his emo- 
tions. It was a simple little story of how a 
rich man mistreated a poor man, robbing him 
of his little lamb. The story stirred David's 
emotions. In righteous anger, he declared 
that the rich man ought to die. Then the 
teacher said plainly, "Thou art the man" — 
after David had been stirred in his emotions 
and had reached a right conclusion before he 
saw that the story applied to him and while 
his judgment was clear and unbiased. 

(3) It appeals to the will. While arousing 
the proper emotion, the story at the same time 
is making a powerful appeal to the will 
through indirect suggestion, A suggested 



Story-Telling in Teaching 39 

idea is presented to the mind so strongly 
«nd attractively in the story that it is- 
sues in action. Far better than telling a Doy 
to do a brave deed is to tell of another boy who 
did a brave deed. Instinctive imitation will 
tend to lead him to act as the character in the 
story acts. 

2. The Characteristics of the Story 

The good story has five chief characteristics. 

(1) Meaning. The story must have a mean- 
ing, a point, a lesson. It must teach a trutn. 
Jesus told the story of a prodigal son to teach 
God's love for man, and he told the story of a 
good Samaritan to teach man's love for man. 

(2) Attractiveness. The story must be such 
that the pupils will enjoy it for its own sake. 
It must be worth telling just as a story. 

(3) Unity. Everything in the story must 
tend to make the desired impression. Every- 
thing that helps to do this must be included, 
and everything that does not help to do this 
must be left out. The story must not be burden- 
ed with secondary characters, unnecessary de- 
tails and irrelevant incidents. 

(4) Action. The story must have action, 
life, movement. It must tell of things that 
were said and done, rather than what was felt 
or thought. Of the one hundred and seven 



40 Sunday School Experience 

words in one of the parables of Jesus, thirty- 
three are verbs. What the character did must 
tell what he was. 

(5) Adaptation. The materials of the story 
must be suited to the pupils, must be connected 
in some way with their instincts and their in- 
terests, and the language must be adapted to 
their understanding. Stories for little children 
will be very different from stories for older 
pupils. They will be shorter, simpler in con- 
struction, clearer in language and meaning. 
Always, the story materials must be more 
familiar to the pupils than the truth the story 
is meant to illustrate. 

3. The Arrangement of the Story 

A story must have a hero, action, a plot, and 
a solution. Or, to put it in a better way for 
the teacher, the story must have the four fol- 
lowing things: 

(1) A good beginning, one that gets attention 
and arouses interest in what is to follow. 
Sometimes this beginning introduces and char- 
acterizes the leading person or persons of the 
story. Sometimes it provides a background 
for the action. Again, it may give a hint of 
the line of thought to be developed, or it may 
awaken the kind of feeling the story is to 



Story-Telling in Teaching 41 

evoke. The beginning should be just as short 
as is consistent with its purpose. Usually a 
few snappy sentences will be sufficient. 

(2) An orderly succession of events, every- 
thing coming in in its natural, logical order 
and preparing for the climax without reveal- 
ing it beforehand. 

(3) A proper climax. The climax is that 
which makes the story, that which gives mean- 
ing to the whole. It is the focus of interest. 
It is the ball in the load of the gun. It is the 
point of the story, and it is that for which the 
story exists. Here is where the moral impres- 
sion is made if made at all. Failure here 
means failure altogether. Frequently the cli- 
max has in it the element of surprise, to 
strengthen the effect. 

(4) A suitable ending. Sometimes the cli- 
max itself may form the fitting close, but 
usually a few sentences will need to be added 
to make it evident that the story really has 
arrived at the stopping place. The ending of 
the story must leave the mind at rest, so it can 
go back and think over the deeper meaning of 
the story and get the full impression. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Give briefly three statements that ex- 
plain the power of the story. 



42 Sunday School Experience 

2. Show how the story appeals to the 
emotions. 

3. Name five characteristics of a good story. 

4. Explain what is meant by unity in the 
story. 

5. Explain what is meant by adaptation in 
the story. 

6. Say four things about the arrangement of 
the story. 

7. Discuss, a little more fully, the climax of 
the story. 

8. Discuss also the suitable ending of the 
story. 

What Others Say 

See chapters I, II, V, and XII in St. John's 
''Stories and Story-Telling. ' ' Excellent ex- 
amples of the telling of Bible stories to children 
may be found in the volume, "Tell Me a True 
Story" by Mary Stewart, and in Miss Cragin's 
two volumes of kindergarten Bible stories. 



LESSON VI 
STORY-TELLItfG IIV TEACHING 

This lesson continues the discussion of the 
preceding lesson. 

4. The Materials of the Story 

There are two general classes of stories — 
idealistic stories and realistic stories. The 
realistic stories profess to deal only with facts, 
while the idealistic stories do not profess to 
deal only with facts. Both alike are valuable 
in the teaching of moral truth. "The one es- 
sential for idealistic stories is not that they 
should be true but that they should clearly 
and impressively set forth a truth." Among 
the most valuable forms of idealistic stories are 
fairy-tales, folk-tales, myths, legends, fables, 
parables, and allegories. 

As to realistic stories, there is a great variety 
from which to select. "Stories from history 
and biography, personal reminiscences, true 
stories of animals, and all others that profess 
to be accounts of actual happenings belong to 
this class. They have a special value because 



44 Sunday School Experience 

besides suggesting a principle they also indi- 
cate how it may receive specific application in 
life. The deeds of the Christian martyrs and 
of the modest heroes of every-day life have a 
certain power which is beyond that of the most 
beautiful myth. The story of what Jesus did 
means more than all the visions of all the 
prophets." (St. John) 

The Bible itself is the great treasure-house of 
stories for the Sunday-school teacher, but also 
outside the Bible he will find rich story 
treasures which he may use as illustrations. 
"When he has fully developed the true story- 
teller's spirit he will find them everywhere — in 
novels, history, and poetry; in the magazines, 
and even in the daily papers ; in his own past, 
and in the lives of his friends. Knowing that 
whatever brings a message to him may carry a 
message to another, he will translate his own 
experiences, whether they come by way of 
reading or of life, into story form, and will not 
lack material." (St. John) 

5. Dressing up the Story 

The teacher who would make the story a 
work of art should heed the following sug- 
gestions : 

(1) Use direct discourse. Let the characters 



Story-Telling in Teaching 45 

do their own talking in their own words, in- 
stead of telling what they said. 

(2) Give the speeches in verse in some of the 
old stories in which action predominates and 
conversation- is brief, particularly when the 
story is for younger children. 

(3) Employ rythmic repetition whenever pos- 
sible. This rythmic repetition of certain sig- 
nificant words or phrases has the pleasing ef- 
fect of poetry and music, and tends to deepen 
the impression. Note the repetition in the 
creation story of Genesis at the close of each 
day 's work, ' ' and there was evening and there 
was morning, one day," "and there was even- 
ing and there was morning, a second day, ' ' and 
so on. 

(4) Use short words and short sentences, es- 
pecially in stories for smaller children. Use 
common, well-known words, even colloqui- 
alisms, and the simplest grammatical construc- 
tions, so that the pupil may be able to devote 
his whole attention to the story itself. 

(5) Sometimes the story should he given a 
fresh form. An old story in a new dress may be 
very attractive. Put freshness, individuality, 
originality, into the telling as much as possible. 
This suggestion has its limitations, because in 
retelling stories to younger pupils, it is neces- 
sary to repeat the exact words, at least in part. 



46 Sunday School Experience 

(6) Put expression into the telling of the 
story. Let voice and gesture and change of 
countenance help to convey the meaning and 
deepen the impression of the story. The teach- 
er should put his whole self into the telling, 
and act out the story — but should not so over- 
do it as to take attention from the story itself 
to its telling. The teacher must feel the power 
of the story himself, and then show that he 
feels it in the enthusiastic, animated telling of 
it to the pupils. It is bad to spoil a good story 
by bad telling. 

6. Preparing the Story 

A story cannot be well told without careful 
preparation. It is laziness, probably, that ac- 
counts for the fact that there is not more good 
story-telling in teaching. There are at least 
four steps that must be taken in the prepara- 
tion of a Bible story. 

(1) All the fads must be gotten together and 
arranged in order. If the story be the feeding 
of the five thousand, for instance, it will be 
necessary to read all the four accounts, in Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke and John, and also tne 
parallel passages, and then to consult the dic- 
tionaries and commentaries. All the facts thus 
obtained must be fitted together in order. In 



Story-Telling in Teaching 47 

this case, it will be difficult in a place or two 
to decide on the right order, but the decision 
must be made that seems to best agree with all 
the facts. 

(2) Details must oe filled in oy the use of con- 
structive imagination. One must be able to see, 
in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, 
the crowds in their bright garments of red and 
blue and yellow against the dark green of the 
grass, arranged in symmetrical rows and look- 
ink like an immense flower-garden. One must 
be able to see Peter as he receives his little 
portion of the lunch, the incredulous astonish- 
ment on his face, his hesitation to start out on 
what seemed to be such a silly, futile business, 
and his impulse to utter a foolish protest — 
"Do you expect these few scraps to fill a 
thousand mouths?" 

(3) The story must oe adapted in arrangement 
and language to the interests and needs of the 
pupils. In a story so rich in materials as that 
of the feeding of the five thousand, there will 
need to be a shifting of emphasis, according to 
the class for whom it is intended. For one 
class, the story will be so arranged as to place 
emphasis upon the little boy and his lunch, and 
for another class upon the assistance of the 
twelve or upon the orderly arrangement of the 
people or upon the collection of the scraps. 



48 Sunday School Experience 

(4) The story must "be learned and 'practiced. 
This does not mean that it must be memorized 
altogether. Usually only certain words and 
phrases need to be memorized. But, after care- 
fully arranging all the facts in order and fill- 
ing in the necessary details and adapting all 
to the purpose in mind, the teacher should 
think through the story in his own language 
for the most part, and get it thoroughly fixed 
in mind. Then he should practice telling it to 
a friend before using it in the class. 

Whiting and Discussion 

1. Name seven kinds of idealistic stories. 

2. Name some kinds of realistic stories. 

3. State the first three suggestions named 
with regard to dressing up the story. 

4. Discuss also suggestions four and five. 

5. Discuss more fully the sixth suggestion. 

6. State the four steps that must be taken 
in the preparation of a Bible story. 

7. Discuss the fourth step. 

What Others Say 

See chapters III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, 
XI and XIII in St. John's " Stories and Story- 
Telling." Other good books are Bryant's 
"How to Tell Stories to Children," and 
Houghton's "Telling Bible Stories." 



LESSON VII 

PREPARING THE LESSON 

Many teachers fail because they do not get 
ready to teach. They depend on the inspira- 
tion of the moment. They neglect to make 
proper preparation. They are indifferent or 
lazy, or both. They have no conception of the 
importance of their work, and they are not 
willing to pay the price of good teaching. 

h Begin the Preparation Early 

The teacher should keep at least a week 
ahead in his lesson preparation all the time. 
The teacher who does this will be able to assign 
work to the pupils intelligently. He will be 
more interested in the lesson himself, and will 
be able to get the pupils more interested. 

The teacher may devote fifteen or twenty 
minutes a day to lesson study or he may give 
a whole evening to it, making all his prepara- 
tion at one time; but, in either case, he will 
make better preparation and will do better 
teaching if he begins early and keeps ahead 
with his study. 



50 Sunday School Experience 

Moreover, if the teacher does not begin early 
his lesson preparation, something may inter- 
fere at the time planned, and he may have to 
suffer the humiliation of appearing before the 
class unprepared. 

2. Locating the Lesson 

At the very beginning of his preparation, 
the teacher must see the lesson in its proper 
setting. He must see it in the light of its liter- 
ary form and its relation to the Bible as a 
whole and to the book from which it is taken. 

The Bible "contains histories and biogra- 
phies, letters and poems, dramas and lyric 
idyls, the writings of prophets and the pithy 
sayings of wise men." Always, the teacher 
should ask himself, "What sort of literature is 
this, and where does the book from which the 
lesson is taken fit in among the sixty-six 
books?" Sometimes it will be necessary to 
read the whole book. 

The teacher also must see the book contain- 
ing the lesson in the light of the historical cir- 
cumstances under which it was composed. He 
must appreciate the situation, put himself 
back to the time of the writing, understand 
what the book meant then, catch the point of 
view of the writer and of those to whom he was 



Preparing the Lesson 51 

writing. He must get into sympathy with the 
writer and see the writing, not merely as lit- 
erature, but as religious literature, as the ut- 
terance of a man in touch with God. 

3. Getting the Meaning of the Language 

What did the author mean to say in these 
words in this passage ? That is the fundamen- 
tal question. It is not what we want him to 
say, nor what men have said he says, nor what 
our church holds, but what does he really say? 

With this question in mind, the conscientious 
teacher will use his lexicon, his concordance, 
his Bible dictionary, his biblical geography, 
his commentaries — all the available helps he is 
able to use — in an earnest effort to get as 
nearly at the meaning of the original words of 
the writer as possible. The teacher has no 
moral right to say what he thinks or to make 
any practical application of the lesson until he 
has first made an honest effort to get at the 
meaning of the language used. 

A teacher once said to the writer, "What do 
you think that word 'targets' means in today's 
lesson?" Without waiting for the explana- 
tion that the word was rendered "bucklers" 
in the Revised Version, and that it meant a 
long shield which protected the entire body, he 



52 Sunday School Experience 

hastened to answer his own question — "I 
think it means that each soldier put a rifle 
target up by his side so the enemy would shoot 
at that instead of shooting at him." If this 
man had taken the trouble to read the comment 
on the lesson leaf which he held in his hand, he 
would not have been guilty of such absurd 
"thinking." 

4. Planning (the Lesson for the Pupils 

It is one thing for the teacher to get the 
meaning of the lesson for himself, and it is 
another thing to get it to mean something to 
the pupils. And, if he expects to succeed ^in 
this difficult undertaking, he must plan for it 
beforehand carefully and wisely. He must 
plan for his beginning and his closing, and all 
that comes between. 

He must plan to begin with the pupils* own 
ideas, to bring up in their mind's such ideas as 
they may already possess concerning the theme 
to be treated; he must plan to arouse the 
pupils' interests and to give them motives to 
seek further knowledge, to get them to want 
to learn the lesson ; he must plan to present the 
lesson logically, to make a single clear impres- 
sion upon the minds of the pupils. 

In planning to accomplish these aims, the 



Preparing itlie Lesson 53 

teacher must decide on the method or methods 
to be used. He may plan to begin with ques- 
tions and answers followed by a story, or with 
a story followed by discussion. He may plan 
to begin with an object or picture or handwork. 
He may plan to begin with a recitation, or 
occasionally with a lecture. The method or 
methods of presentation will be chosen with a 
view to the character of the lesson to be taught 
and the stage of development of the pupil. 
The lesson plan must be made to fit the pupils. 

5. Make a Selection from the Materials 

Many teachers make the mistake of trying to 
teach too much. It is better to teach one 
thing, and really teach that, than to undertake 
to teach several things, and end in actually 
teaching nothing. Over-feeding is not con- 
fined to the table, but is found oftentimes in 
the Sunday-school. Many pupils are suffering 
from religious indigestion. 

The shortest lesson offered for use in the 
Sunday-school has more in it than any teacher 
ought to try to teach. The wise teacher will 
deliberately put aside some of the good things 
in the lesson, selecting one good thing, one im- 
portant truth, for presentation. 

This process of selection and elimination 



54: Sunday School Experience 

may appear to be a little difficult, but the 
teacher who realizes its necessity Avill be able 
to accomplish it with patience and practice. 

*6. Making the Application 

In real teaching, the lesson must get some- 
where. It must be brought to a conclusion. It 
must make a definite, lasting impression upon 
the pupils. It must bring home to the pupils 
an obligation to be something or do something. 
This does not mean that the teaching must 
take the form of exhortation. It seldom should 
do this. The teaching should be such that it will 
be in itself an exhortation, in effect though 
not in form. 

Nor does it mean that there must be a practi- 
cal application of a spiritual truth in every 
lesson. Sometimes, in the single passage of 
Scripture which constitutes the lesson, taken 
by itself, there is not any spiritual truth. But 
the lesson is not the less important, for, when 
taken in connection with other lessons, it does 
contain practical applications for the pupils. 
By making the application, it is meant that 
the lesson must not be left up in the air. It 
must be brought down to earth and hitched 
onto something. The teaching of the lesson 
must be such that there is formed in the mind 



Preparing the Lesson 55 

of the pupil a definite conclusion, impression, 
conviction, motive, emotion, determination. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why' should the teacher keep at least a 
week ahead with the lesson preparation ? 

2. Explain what is meant by locating the 
lesson. 

3. How may one get at the meaning of the 
language of the lesson? 

4. How may the teacher get the lesson to 
mean something to the pupils ? 

5. Why should the teacher make a selection 
from the materials of the lesson? 

6. Explain what is meant by making the 
application of the lesson. 

7. What do you consider the most im- 
portant suggestion in this lesson? Why? 

What Others Say 

See the chapter on "The Plan of the Les- 
son" in Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teach- 
er," pages 121-130. Also see the first chapter 
in "Talks with the Training Class" by Slat- 
tery. 



56 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON VIII 
THE GRADED LESSONS 

By graded lessons is meant lessons adapted 
to the varying needs of the pupils. In the 
school using graded lessons, the pupils in each 
grade have lessons that are different from 
those used in the other grades, there being as 
many different lessons, or selections of Scrip- 
ture, as there are grades. 

1. Why Graded Lessons 

The lessons should be graded because God 
has graded both the pupils and the Bible. It is 
our business to fit the two together. How this 
is done may be indicated as follows : 

(1) In the beginners' department, ages 
three to five, the pupil understands, or apper- 
ceives, truth in the light of his experiences in 
the home and his limited acquaintance with 
nature about him, so the lesson materials for 
pupils of this age will consist of simple stories 
that present God as the loving Father and that 
teach obedience, kindness and helpfulness. 

(2) The primary pupils, ages six to eignt, 
apperceive truth in the light of their larger 
experiences in the day school where they are 



The Graded Lessons 57 

learning to distinguish between the world of 
fact and that of imagination, so the lesson 
materials in this department will consist of 
stories and simple explanations which present 
God as working in nature and with children 
of their own age and that present ideas of 
right doing. 

(3) The junior pupils, ages nine to twelve, 
apperceive truth in the light of their social in- 
stincts and relations, so the lesson materials 
will consist of stories of the doings of Bible 
boys and girls which present ideals of social 
duties and deepen the sense of responsibility. 

(4) The pupils of the intermediate depart- 
ment, ages thirteen to sixteen, are in the period 
of crisis and their interest is in exceptional and 
heroic life, so the lesson materials will consist 
of biographies which glorify wise decisions and 
noble achievement and which lead to the conse- 
cration of the life to God's service. 

(5) In the senior department, ages seven- 
teen to twenty-one, the pupils have developed 
into greater rationality, so the lesson materials 
will consist of doctrinal and practical selections 
of Scripture and training courses which help 
to clear up doubts, solve moral difficulties, 
build formal beliefs, and train for effective 
Christian service. 

(6) In the advanced department, ages 
twenty-two and over, the pupils are meeting 



58 Sunday School Experience 

the problems of life, so the courses of study 
should be elective and should deal with practi- 
cal applications of Bible teaching. 

2. Better Than Uniform Lessons 

The graded lessons do, and the uniform les- 
sons do not do, the following things : 

(1) Adapt themselves to the varying needs of 
the pupils. Pupils differ in their powers and 
capacities, in their religious needs, at different 
stages of their development. It is practically 
impossible to teach the messages of the proph- 
ets or the epistles of Paul to little children, but 
these messages and epistles are valuable and 
they need to be taught later in the life, wnen 
the pupil is able to understand them. 

(2) Make the impression of progression in the 
mind of the pupil. The pupils should feel them- 
selves advancing from year to year. They 
should feel that they are getting somewhere, 
that they are making real progress, as is the 
case in the day school. This gives an incentive 
to do real studying. 

(3) Give a connected view of the Bible as a 
progressive revelation. The uniform lessons tend 
to give an impression of the Bible as a book of 
unrelated fragments, disconnected parts, dis- 
jointed pieces. 



The Graded Lessons 59 

(4) Create in the pupil a growing interest and 
appreciation of the Bible. When the hop-skip- 
and-jump method is pursued, as in the uniform 
lessons, the pupil, not only does not see the 
beauties of unity and progression in the Bible, 
but he actually acquires misconceptions and 
antagonisms with regard to certain of the most 
valuable and precious passages of Scripture be- 
cause they were presented to him before he 
had grown up to them. 

3. Adopting Graded Lessons 

Before adopting a system of graded lessons 
in a Sunday-school, it is important that those 
who have the matter in charge should know 
exactly what they are doing. They should send 
to the denominational publishing house for 
samples and descriptions of the international 
graded lessons. These lessons were authorized 
by the International Sunday School Associa- 
tion at the convention in Louisville in 1908. 
These lessons are issued by the International 
Association in addition to and along 
with the uniform lessons, and the leading 
denominational publishing houses now 
furnish graded helps as well as the uniform 
helps. These graded lessons were carefully 
prepared by competent teachers of long ex- 
perience. "They combine all the advantages of 



60 Sunday School Experience 

uniformity and co-operation between schools 
with none of the disadvantages of uniformity 
between classes." 

These graded lessons may be taken up with 
the beginning of any quarter in the year, but, 
in ordering supplies, it is well to remember 
that the graded lesson year begins the first of 
October instead of the first of January. So, if 
the graded lessons are adopted to begin the 
first of January, then second quarter supplies 
should be ordered. 

In addition to the international graded 
series, there are other good systems of graded 
lessons, and it might be well to procure several 
sets of samples before ordering supplies. One 
of the very best series of graded lessons and 
helps published is that of The Graded Sunday 
School Publishing Company, 27 Bromfield 
Street, Boston, Mass. Samples of other series 
may be obtained by addressing Bible Study 
Publishing Company, 250 Devonshire Street, 
Boston, Mass., and The University of Chicago 
Press, Department C, Chicago, 111. 

4. How to Use the Graded Lessons 

At first the graded lessons will seem harder 
to handle than the uniform lessons, but it is not 
so, because they are better adapted to the needs 
of tfee pupils, and also because the lesson helps 



The Graded Lessons 61 

are better. A few general suggestions are here 
offered. 

(1) Let the teacher make himself acquainted 
with the new plans at the start. The graded les- 
sons appear to be hard at first because they are 
different from the uniform lessons, both as to 
arrangement and presentation. They seem 
hard because they are new. 

(2) Let the teacher not oe discouraged by fail- 
ure at the beginning. The lessons will be new to 
the pupils as well as to the teacher, and both 
must get used to them, must learn how to use 
them with pleasure and profit. 

(3) Let the teacher not expect too much from 
the pupils in the way of home-work. Failure on 
the part of the pupils to do the home-work as- 
signed does not prove that the graded lessons 
are inferior to the uniform lessons. The pupils 
that will not do the work with the new lessons 
probably did not work with the old, only the 
teacher did not notice it before. 

(4) Let the teacher use his own judgment in the 
use of the new lessons. Let him give the sug- 
gestions in connection with the lessons a fair 
trial, and, if they will not work, he can try 
another way. If the pupils will not do the 
home-work at home, then he can have them do 
it in the class, or between Sundays in an extra 
meeting of the class. 



62 Sunday School Experience 

(5) Let the teacher seek to create the impression 
that the pupils are complimented with the new les- 
sons. The pupils should feel that they are be- 
ing favored with something better and that the 
assigned work is a privilege conferred upon 
them. 

(6) Let the teacher show appreciation of work 
done oy the pupils. Much attention should be 
given to the pupils' work. The note-books of 
the pupils should be carefully preserved, and, 
at the end of the year, they should be given to 
the pupils to keep. 

(7) Let the teacher of uniform lessons de- 
termine to try the graded lessons. He may adopt 
them for his own class, whether or not they are 
adopted by the school as a whole, consulting 
the superintendent of course. Success with 
graded lessons in one class will lead to their 
adoption in other classes. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is meant by graded lessons? 

2. What kind of lessons should be taught to 
the Beginners? 

3. What kind of lessons should be used in 
the Primary department? 

4. What lesson materials are suitable for 
the Juniors, and why? 

5. State briefly four reasons why graded 



The Graded Lessons 63 

lessons are better than uniform lessons. 

6. When were graded lessons authorized by 
the International Sunday School Association? 

7. Give two of the seven suggestions as to 
the use of the graded lessons. 

8. What lessons are used in your school, 
and how long have they been used? 

What Others Say 

See the chapter on "Grades" in Weigle's 
"The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 102-111. 
Also see the chapter on "The Curriculum of 
the School" in Cope's "The Modern Sunday 
School," pages 124-135. 



64 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON IX 
GETTING AND HOLDING ATTENTION 

The pupil's attention is voluntary when he 
makes himself attend; it is involuntary when 
he attends without trying. The teacher must 
depend mainly on involuntary attention. He 
must make his teaching so interesting that the 
pupils will give attention without effort. At 
the same time the teacher must develop volun- 
tary attention in his pupils by causing them to 
want to attend to the teaching. In good teach- 
ing, the two kinds of attention are continually 
running into each other, and helping each 
other. 

1. Interest the Basis of Attention 

Interest is the basis of attention. Interest 
leads to attention. The pupil gives attention 
to that which is interesting to him. And he is 
interested in that which he knows something 
about, in that which affects him. 

Consequently the teacher must know what 
the pupils know, what they are thinking about, 
what they like and what they dislike, what is 
interesting to them. The teacher must be in 



Getting and Holding Attention 65 

sympathetic touch with the interests of the 
pupils, and must "present the lessons in terms 
drawn from their life, and adapted to the 
needs they feel." That is the teacher must 
know the mental appetites of the pupils. 

These appetites, or interests, differ widely in 
different pupils, and they differ in the same 
pupils from time to time. The interests of 
pupils change as they grow older. Only a few 
things interest the real young pupils, and later 
in the life other interests take the place of 
these few interests. On the whole, the circle 
of the pupil's interest is getting larger all the 
time. The older the pupils, then, the more in- 
telligent they are, the better trained they are, 
the easier it is to get and hold their attention, 
because there are more interests to which ap- 
peal may be made and because voluntary at- 
tention has become stronger. 

2. Good Teaching Holds Attention 

It will amount to nothing simply to get at- 
tention. The attention of the pupils must be 
held by giving it something to attend to, by 
really teaching. That is the mental appetite 
must be fed. If it does not get something to 
eat, it will turn away in search of food else- 
where. 

So the teacher must do real teaching. He 



66 Sunday School Experience 

must study the lesson beforehand, must get 
full of the lesson, must learn much more than 
he expects to teach, and then must learn 
thoroughly what he does expect to teach. He 
must have a plan that is well thought out. If 
the teacher who is troubled with inattention 
on the part of the pupils will give more atten- 
tion to the lesson preparation, the pupUs will 
give more attention to the teaching. The 
pupils cannot give attention to nothing. There- 
fore, the teacher must give them something to 
which they may attend, and that something 
must be adapted to their tastes and needs. 
That is, the food must be good food, suitable 
food. And the teacher must remember that 
what is food for one class may not be food at 
all for another class, and that what is food for 
the pupils at one age may not be food for the 
same pupils at another age. 

If always the teacher comes before the class 
well prepared, the members of the class will 
come to expect something that is worth while, 
and they will get into the habit of giving at- 
tention. They will have a general interest that 
will cause them to give voluntary attention, 
and voluntary attention will beget more inter- 
est, and this interest will, in turn, beget more 
attention. 



Getting and Holding Attention 67 

3. The Importance of Variety 

When a boy the writer once lived in a home 
where they had sweet potatoes to eat three 
times a day— and little else, except gravy. 
And always the sweet potatoes were Yellow 
Yams, cooked the same way and served the 
same way. The boy soon got tired of sweet 
potatoes, and has never liked them since. 

For the same reason, some pupils get tired of 
the teaching of some teachers. There is too 
much sameness about it. A good teacher uses 
various methods in teaching. He uses first the 
object method, and then the picture method. 
He uses the blackboard one time, and 
the map another time. He uses the 
lecture method on one occasion, and the 
recitation method on another. He is 
not the slave of any one method. He knows 
that attention is gotten through the senses, 
and he uses eye and touch sensations as well as 
ear sensations. 

Moreover, the good teacher will use the same 
method in a variety of ways, and always it will 
be a good way. He will never begin his teach- 
ing any two succeeding Sundays in the same 
way. He will not change his method just to be 
changing, but to meet the changing needs of 
the pupils. He knows how to use the element 
of surprise in teaching, how to appeal to the 



68 Sunday School Experience 

curiosity of the pupils, how to keep them 
wondering what will come next and expecting 
always that it will be something good. 

4. Physical Earnestness 

If the teacher would get and hold attention, 
he must be alive and show that he is alive. He 
must keep awake, and the pupils must know 
that he is awake. The teacher may have moral 
earnestness, but he must have also physical 
earnestness. 

He must show in his speech, his expression, 
his movements, that he is alive to the .situation. 
He must look at his pupils. No teacher with 
his eyes glued to a book or a paper can expect 
to get very close to the pupils with the lesson. 
The teacher must talk rapidly. Most teachers 
are too slow of speech. They lose attention 
between words, between sentences, and thus 
are compelled to keep getting attention. Rap- 
idity of speech can be cultivated. The teacher 
cannot speak too rapidly if only he speak dis- 
tinctly and with proper emphasis. 

The earnest, enthusiastic teacher will speak 
with his body, with facial expression and with 
gesture. He will move about as if he were 
bent on getting somewhere, on doing some- 
thing — as he speaks, as he uses the blackboard, 
as he handles pictures and objects. This does 



Getting and Holding Attention 69 

not mean that he will get excited and fussy. 
He will be self-contained and at the same time 
alive, wide-awake, dead in earnest, enthusias- 
tic, really interested himself in the lesson. 

The teacher will be awake also to the atti- 
tudes and ideas of the pupils. Thus he will be 
able to guage the attention of the pupils, and 
to draw out and use their thoughts in class dis- 
cussion. 

5. The Co-operation of the Pupils 

" Teaching succeeds only in so far as it en- 
lists the activity of the pupil." Attention is 
active, not passive. It is not a receiving ; it is 
a reaching out and laying hold. In attention, 
the pupil is alive, awake, alert, active. 

Herein lies the high value of the manual 
method and the recitation method. The hand- 
work and the mouth-work are at the same time 
result and cause of headwork. But, whatever 
the method employed by the teacher, the pupil 
attends that he may understand, that he may 
learn, that he may fit the new into the old, 
that he may interpret that which he does not 
know by that which he does know. 

That is the pupil attends that he may apper- 
ceive. So, as Weigle says, "The best way for 
the teacher to get and hold attention is to ful- 
fill the conditions of apperception." The same 



70 Sunday School Experience 

author also says: "Attention is, in fact, the 
focal point where past and present meet to de- 
termine a meaning. A repetition of the old 
and familiar, with no new element, cannot hold 
the attention and may even fail to arouse it to 
a passing look. A presentation of the absolute- 
ly new, with no link of connection with past 
experience, would fail just as completely, for 
it would be unintelligible. Neither the old 
alone nor the new alone can engage the atten- 
tion. The old alone is flat and stale, and is met 
mechanically by habit; the new alone is mean- 
ingless. But when we can bring the past to 
bear upon the present ; when we can see the 
old in the new and the new in the old, the new 
giving life to the old, and the old giving mean- 
ing to the new — then interest awakens, the 
mind is alert and attention intent upon its 
problem/' 

6. Remove Distractions 

The teacher must have the attention of the 
pupils — must have. If he fails to get and hold 
their attention, he is not teaching at all, and is 
wasting his time and theirs. Not only so, but 
he does the pupils positive harm, because he 
gives them wrong impressions and educates 
them in the habit of inattention. 

As a matter of fact, the pupil is all the time 



Getting and Holding Attention 71 

giving attention to something. Every con- 
scious moment of the pupil is a moment of at- 
tention. Just as the field of a camera has a 
focus where the picture is clear and a margin 
where it is blurred, so the field of conscious- 
ness has a focus and a margin. The object of 
attention has the mind focussed upon it for 
the time. 

Now, all around the class every Sunday, 
there are voices calling to the pupils, "Here! 
Attention ! Focus your consciousness upon 
me." In his efforts to get attention, the teach- 
er has competition, and he must rout his com- 
petitors. Some of the ways in which this com- 
petition may be gotten rid of are the follow- 
ing: 

(1) Get rid of the sights and sounds in 
other classes. Have your class in its own room, 
or at least put up curtains. 

(2) Get rid of superfluous objects. Keep 
the classroom properly furnished and in good 
order. 

(3) Get rid of bad air. The air in the room 
must be fresh, and not too hot or too cold. 

(4) Get rid of improper seating. The seats 
should be comfortable and so arranged that 
the teacher can see the face of every pupil. 

(5) Get rid of yourself. Avoid affectations 
and peculiarities of dress and manner that at- 
tract attention to yourself instead of to the 



72 Sunday School Experience 

teaching. And do not attract attention to a 
pupil by reproving him or asking him to listen. 
Also do not exhibit objects and pictures too 
soon, and do not use illustrations in a way to 
attract attention to the illustration instead of 
to the thing illustrated. 

(6) Get rid of the school. Do not aliow 
the teaching period to be interfered with by 
handshaking, collections, marking of records, 
or the distribution of literature. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Discuss the basis of attention. 

2. Show the importance of good teaching 
in holding attention. 

3. Do you think teachers generally re- 
alize the importance of this fact? Give your 
reasons. 

4. Discuss the importance of variety in 
getting and holding attention. 

5. Give an illustration of failure in the mat- 
ter of variety in teaching. 

6. Show what is meant by physical earnest- 
ness in teaching. 

7. Discuss co-operation on the part of the 
pupils. 

8. What six kinds of distractions must be 
removed in order to get and hold attention ? 



Getting and Holding Attention 73 

9. Are these distractions removed in your 

Sunday-school ? Explain. 

What Others Say 

See the chapter on "Attention and Apper- 
ception: Principles" in Weigle's "The Pupil 
and the Teacher," pages 142-153. Also see the 
chapter on "Attention" in Slattery's "Talks 
with the Training Class." 



74 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON X 
SUNDAY SCHOOL EVANGELISM 

Sunday-school evangelism is safe, sane and 
sensible. The "ten-thousand-dollar revival" 
and the annual "big meeting" may be neces- 
sary under existing circumstances, but the 
circumstances ought to be changed — and they 
may be changed through the Sunday-school. 
Spasmodic, hysteric attempts at rescuing 
hardened adults in special meetings would not 
be necessary if the churches were alive to their 
evanglistic opportunities in the Sunday-school. 

1. The Need of Conversion 

Sunday-school evangelism aims at genuine 
conversion. What, then, is conversion? Join- 
ing the church is not conversion. Being bap- 
tized is not conversion. Nor does conversion 
consist in going forward in a meeting or crying 
over one's sins or learning a creed or under- 
standing the plan of salvation or feeling happy 
in the Lord or telling a wonderful experience. 
These things may accompany conversion, but 
they are not conversion. 

That which constitutes the basis of conver- 



Sunday School ETangelism 75 

sion, and which we call "regeneration," is a 
spiritual process, an act of God. It cannot be 
seen nor heard nor felt. The moment the 
penitent yields himself to Christ in faith, he 
has been regenerated — "He that believeth on 
the Son hath everlasting life" — and the 
moment he accepts his regeneration as a fact 
and "takes up his cross" to follow Jesus, he is 
converted, whatever may be his feelings. 

The regeneration, what God does for the in- 
dividual, is one thing; the conversion, the 
individual's acceptance of that fact, is another 
thing; and the individual's consequent feeling 
or experience is still another thing. Experiences 
differ as individuals differ. One's experience 
may be as the sudden flooding of the sunlight 
into a darkened room, when all the doors and 
windows are thrown wide open; and another's 
experience may be as the gradual dawning of 
the morning, so that he did not know when it 
ceased to be night and began to be day — but, 
in both cases, the Sun of Righteousness is shin- 
ing into the soul. 

Adult experiences differ from the ex- 
periences of boys and girls. Adults should not 
demand an adult experience from a boy or 
girl at conversion. No boy at twelve ever had 
an adult experience ; and, if he told one, he got 
it from an adult — and not from the Lord. 



76 Sunday School Experience 

2. The Age of Conyersion 

The golden age of conversion is somewhere 
between ten and sixteen. The age of conver- 
sion will depend to some extent upon the indi- 
vidual. Some pupils develop more rapidly 
than others, and some have had better 
religious training than others. 

Various tables of statistics have been pub- 
lished, throwing light upon the age of conver- 
sion. Statistics collected by Coe, Starbuck 
and others show that, of 6241 cases, 148 were 
converted under ten, 1871 from twelve to fif- 
teen, 3183 from sixteen to twenty, 950 from 
twenty-one to twenty-five, and 89 from twenty- 
six to thirty-four. According to these figures, 
the largest number of conversions occur at 
about sixteen years of age. 

Later statistics collected by Mills, Hall, 
Hammond and others show that, of 3782 cases, 
3068 were converted under twenty-one, and 
714 over twenty. According to these figures, 
the largest number of conversions occur at 
about twelve years of age. Favorable con- 
ditions in the home and in the Sunday-school 
tend to lower the age of conversion. All the 
statistics show that very few are converted 
after they are twenty years of age. 

If one half the money and effort now being 
expended in special efforts for the conversion 



Sunday School Eyangelism , 77 

of adults were put into the winning of con- 
verts among the young, the returns would be 
doubtless ten times as large as they are. 

3. What of Decision Day? 

Some Sunday-schools observe what is 
called Decision Day, when special effort is 
made to get the pupils to decide for Christ and 
join the church. In some schools Decision Day 
is an annual afair. And sometimes a hundred 
or two hundred "converts" will sign cards in 
one of these Decision Day services. Frequently 
the whole class is thus ' ■ converted. ' ' 

No doubt some of these converts are really 
converted, but with most of them it is prob- 
ably a superficial performance. Thus many of 
them are hardened rather than helped. There 
is danger also that those who refuse to be 
"converted" under high pressure methods in 
these services will become hardened against 
proper persuasion, and be lost to the church 
altogether. 

If the school is to have Decision Day, it 
should be held when the conditions seem 
favorable, after having been decided on in a 
conference of the officers and teachers, without 
any announcement to the pupils. The appeal 
should be so presented that the pupils may act 
freely and intelligently. No pupil should have 



78 Sunday School Experience 

occasion to feel afterwards that an undue ad- 
vantage was taken of him, that he was trap- 
ped. The results of a Decision Day service 
should be wisely conserved by personal work 
on the part of teacher and pastor and parent. 
When everything is considered, the better 
way would seem to be to try to make every 
Sunday a decision day for one or more pupils, 
to conduct a continuous campaign of educa- 
tional evangelism. The writer was a worker 
in a Sunday-school where it was thus. There 
were frequent conversions and additions to the 
church from the Sunday-school in the regular 
course of spiritual events. 

4. The Importance of Atmosphere 

The very atmosphere of the Sunday-school 
should be favorable to conversion. This at- 
mosphere may be created by the very shape 
and arrangement of the building in which the 
school meets and by the furnishings of the 
room in which the class meets. And it may be 
created by opening and closing exercises which 
are more than mere " exercises." There should 
be a period of quiet worship about ten minutes 
in length. The songs should be worshipful, 
and the prayers should be genuine and brief. 
During this period of worship, there should 
be no announcements, no discussion of busi- 



Sunday School Evangelism 79 

ness, and no whispering or moving about of 
pupils or teachers or officers. 

This spiritual atmosphere may be created 
also by the spirit and attitude of officers and 
teachers. They must be inspiring examples in 
quiet reverence and earnest participation. 
They must contribute to the spiritual effect, 
and expect spiritual results. 

The atmosphere of the school as a whole, in 
the department and the class, should be such 
that conversions may be possible and appro- 
priate every Sunday. Souls cannot be born in- 
to an ice-box or a bedlam. 

5. The Eight Kind of Teaching 

Real teaching will result in conversions. We 
can count on God's doing his part, and on the 
pupils doing their part, if only we do our part. 
We must implant true ideas about God and 
life, and develop right habits and worthy atti- 
tudes. That is our part. 

As teachers, we must seek to have a sympa- 
thetic understanding of the truth and of the 
pupil, and to meet wisely the particular inter- 
ests and needs at each step in the developing 
life. We should not be all the time exhorting 
the pupils to come to Christ, but the teaching 
should be such that it will draw them to Him. 
By indirect suggestion, the pupils will be led 



80 Sunday School Experience 

to form their own conclusions in questions of 
right and wrong, in matters of morals, as to 
their relation to God and to others, and to 
make practical spiritual applications for them- 
selves. 

The intelligent, earnest teacher who under- 
takes to do this kind of teaching, and who tries 
to embody his teaching in his own life, may 
confidently expect that, just before or early in 
adolescence, the pupil will, in some sacred 
moment of divine impression, yield himself in 
full surrender to Christ. 

6. Personal Work 

Such a teacher as has just been indicated 
will be ever on the alert for marks of that mo- 
ment of impression, and will know how to 
speak the right word in private. In the quiet 
talk with the pupil alone, there is absent the 
embarrassment felt in the crowd and there is 
less danger that he will do merely what others 
are doing. 

In this personal interview, the teacher 
should be natural, sincere, direct, simple in 
speech, tactful, speaking as friend to friend. 
He should not talk with the pupil until he 
feels that the right time has come, and then he 
should not overdo the matter, but at the same 
time he should be patient and persistent, pray- 



Sunday School Evangelism 81 

ing for and expecting success. The matter 
should be settled definitely if it seems at all 
possible. 

7. After Conversion 

A teacher said to the writer, "All my pupils 
are converted ; what can I do with them now ? ' ' 
"Everything," I said. "Teach them what it 
means to be a Christian; train them in Chris- 
tian service ; help them to catch a vision of un- 
selfish, useful living; fire them with noble 
ideals and give them practical suggestions in 
right doing. Your work is not merely the sav- 
ing of souls; it is the larger work of saving 
lives. Conversion is not the end; it is rather 
the beginning." 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why is Sunday-school evangelism better 
than "big meeting" evangelism? 

2. Distinguish between regeneration, con- 
version and experience. 

3. Why should we not demand adult ex- 
periences from boys and girls? 

4. What is the golden age of conversion? 
Why? 

5. What is meant by Decision Day? 



82 Sunday School Experience 

6. What are some dangers to be avoided in 
connection with Decision Day? 

7. Name some things that help to create an 
atmosphere favorable to conversion in the 
Sunday-school ? 

8. What kind of teaching leads to conver- 
sion? 

9. Discuss the personal work of the teacher. 

10. Illustrate the seventh point by an 
actual occurrence in your own experience or 
observation. 

What Otheks Say 

See the chapter on "The Spiritual Goal" in 
Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 
195-208, and the tenth chapter in "Talks with 
the Training Class" by Slattery. See also "The 
Spiritual Life of the Sunday School ' ' by Chap- 
man, and "The Child for Christ" by Mc- 
Kinney. 



LESSON XI 
PUPILS FIRST IN IMPORTANCE 

The pupils are first in importance in the 
Sunday-school — not the teacher, not the super- 
intendent, not the pastor. Everything con- 
nected with the Sunday-school should center 
in the pupils, should be for their benefit. 

1. The School Exists for the Pupils 

Why have a Sunday-school at all? Because 
we have pupils, and they need the Sunday- 
school. The Sunday-school is because the 
pupils are. The school exists for the sake of 
the pupils. The pupils need the Sunday-school 
more than they need the day school. 

The pupils need the Sunday-school with its 
high ideals, its divine truth, its holy inspira- 
tions, and its enduring impressions. They need 
it because it will help them to live better lives, 
to attain their true destiny, to become their 
best selves. The Sunday-school, then, is the 
pupils' school. It is not the teachers' school. 
It is not the officers' school. 

2. The Organization Must Fit the Pupils 

The Sunday-school needs to be organized 



84 Sunday School Experience 

around the pupils and their needs. The or- 
ganization of the Sunday-school, both as to its 
nature and extent, must fit the pupils. The 
organization must not be merely formal. It 
must not be arbitrary, being what it is simply 
because somebody says it must be that way. 

Therefore, the organization of the Sunday- 
school should not be received unchanged from 
a past generation, as a matter of course, as a 
thing to be guarded sacredly because it has 
been handed down and to be kept intact just 
so. The organization of any particular Sun- 
day-school must be made to order, to fit the 
pupils in that school. 

Take a Sunday-school that follows the old 
custom of having one superintendent and one 
assistant superintendent. Ask a worker in 
such a school, "Why do you have it that 
way?" The answer likely will be, "Well, I 
don't know, we have always had it that way." 
"And how did you get to having it that way?" 
"Oh, I suppose it was because other schools 
had it that way." He had never stopped to 
consider whether or not that old way, 
is a good way, especially for his school. The 
old way might have been a good way for some 
other school at some other time. But that does 
not make it a good way now for this particular 
school. 



Pupils First in Importance 85 

As a matter of fact, it might be far better to 
have several superintendents, or to have one 
general superintendent, and a number of asso- 
ciate superintendents, each in charge of a de- 
partment, having the school graded. The or- 
ganization of the Sunday-school should be de- 
termined by the religious needs of the pupils. 
It should be builded around the pupils. It is 
a mistake to build a Sunday-school organiza- 
tion, and then attempt to fit the pupils into it. 

3. The Teaching Must Meet the Needs of the Pupils 

The real teacher does not teach because he 
has been sought, but because he feels that he 
ought. In teaching, it is not what the teacher 
wants, but what the pupils need. Ask the 
teacher who reads questions out of a quarterly, 
"Why do you do that?" There can be no 
good answer to that question. Certainly this 
kind of thing is not done because it meets the 
needs of the pupils. 

Ask a teacher who talks all the time this 
question : ' ' Why do you do that ? Why don 't 
you get the pupils to do part of the talking? 
Why don't you use a blackboard, and have the 
pupils use it? Why don't you get the pupils 
to write out things in connection with the les- 
son? Why don't you get the pupils to do 
things that teach them, get them to learn and 



86 Sunday School Experience 

to use Bible truth by expressing it?" The 
answers received to such questions would 
vary with the individual of whom they were 
asked, but none of the answers would be good 
answers. Because teachers that are meeting 
the real educational needs of the pupils, that 
is teachers who are really teaching, do not talk 
all the time. 

Ask a teacher who does the same things 
every Sunday, "Why do you do that?", and 
the answer is sure to be a poor one, because a 
good teacher will change his methods from 
time to time to meet the changing needs of the 
pupils. What is the chief business of the 
teacher, anyway? Is it to get truth into the 
minds of the pupils? No, that is only a small 
part of the process. The chief thing is to get 
the pupils to embody the truth in their lives. 
The teacher must get the pupils to lay hold of 
the truth, to appropriate it, and then to ex- 
press it in words and deeds. The aim of the 
true teacher is not a lesson, but a life. 

d. The Bible Made for the Pupils 

Why use the Bible at all in the Sunday- 
school, rather than some other book? Because 
the Bible best meets the religious needs of the 
pupils. Then how should the Bible be used? 
Any way or ways which will best meet the re- 



Pupils First in Importance 87 

ligious needs of the pupils. 

Jesus, the great teacher, declared that the 
Sabbath was made for man and not man for 
the Sabbath. So we learn from his life and 
teachings that pupils are not made for the 
Bible, to fit the Bible, because of the Bible ; but 
that the Bible has been made for the pupils, to 
fit the pupils, because of the pupils. 

Now, we cannot fit all the Bible into the 
lives of the pupils all at once. We must fit a 
small part of the Bible at a time into the lives 
of the pupils. That 4s, we must - divide the 
Bible into lessons. Then, how long should 
these lessons be, and which should be taught 
first? It all depends on the religious needs of 
the pupils. The length of the lessons and the 
order of the lessons must be made to fit the 
pupils — must be adapted to, suited to, the real 
soul needs of the pupils themselves. 

If this be true, it follows that the Sunday- 
school worker must study the pupils. He must 
know the pupils as well as the Bible. He 
might just as well not learn the Bible at all, so 
far as his teaching is concerned, if he does not 
also learn the pupils. In the process of fitting 
the Bible to the pupils, the result will be mis- 
fits unless the worker knows both the Bible 
and the pupils. God made the pupils as well 
as the Bible, and they will fit together if we 



88 Sunday School Experience 

know how to put them together. And, in order 
to do this, it is just as important to know the 
one as it is to know the other. This means that 
those who would succeed in Sunday-school 
work must study psychology, that is mind 
science, that is human nature, that is the 
pupils. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. For whom does the Sunday-school exist? 
Why? 

2. What principle should determine the 
kind of organization the Sunday-school has? 

3. Why is it that the old way is not a good 
way simply because it is an old way? 

4. What questions should the teacher ask 
himself frequently? 

5. What is the chief business of the teach- 
er? 

6. What is the relation of the Bible to the 
pupils ? 

7. What impresses you most in this lesson? 

8. Why do teachers not study their pupils 
more? 

What Others Say 

See the chapter on "Organizing the School 
as an Educational Institution ' ' in Cope's 



Pupils First in Importance 89 

"The Modern Sunday School," pages 61-73, 
and the chapter on "Fundamental Principles 
of Development" in Lamoreaux' "The Unfold- 
ing Life," Pages 13-35. Also see the chapter 
on "Important Principles" in Slattery's 
"Talks with the Training Class," pages 1-12. 



90 Sunday School Experience 



LESSON XII 



THE LAWS OF THE MIND 

The most wonderful thing we know anything 
about is that which knows, the human mind. 
There is much about it that we do not know, 
but there is much we may know. What is 
known about the mind, its laws, its workings, 
constitute psychology, some of the fundamental 
principles of which are outlined in this lesson. 

1. Perceptions 

What we see, hear, taste, smell and touch are 
perceptions. These perceptions are made pos- 
sible by our bodily senses. There are an almost 
infinite number of nerve fibers carrying infor- 
mation into the brain. These nerve fibers are 
something like telegraph wires, only very much 
smaller, and they bring in information through 
the ears and eyes and nose and mouth and skin. 
The messages brought in by these means, 
through the senses, are called sensations. The 
mind turns these sensations into perceptions, 
and then we can say that we see and hear and 
taste and smell and touch. 



The Laws of the Mind 91 

The mind would be shut up in the dark for- 
ever and would have no materials to use if it 
were not for these sensations and perceptions. 
The teacher needs to make use of more than 
one set of sensations in reaching the mind of 
the pupil. Not only will he convey the truth 
through the ear in speaking, but through the 
eye in pictures and objects, and through both 
eye and touch sensations in handwork. 

2. Conceptions 

Conception is the power of the mind to group 
a number of individual perceptions under one 
general notion and to give this a name. The 
word Sunday-school is the name of a concept. 
Sunday-school stands for all you know about 
Sunday-schools of any kind. The word does 
not mean the same to any two individuals. The 
teacher who does good work and who helps to 
make one Sunday-school better will have a 
part in making the word Sunday-school mean 
more to the pupil. So with the word Jesus, 
truth, faith. 

Also the teacher will be careful not to use 
words of which the pupil has no concepts. He 
will explain new words. Otherwise he may do 
the pupil harm rather than good. 

3. Imagination 

Imagination is the picture-forming power of 



92 Sunday School Experience 

the mind. Imagination reconstructs objects 
previously perceived, and recombines them in 
new relations. When you say, ' ' I see a watch, ' ' 
all that you really see is a part of the outside 
of the watch. You imagine the rest of the 
watch. You put together and fit into this 
watch what you have before seen of watches. 

The imagination is one of the great powers 
of the mind. Christ cannot mean much to us 
unless, by the power of the imagination, we 
see him, have an image of him in the mind, that 
is imagine him. The teacher needs to make 
large use of the constructive imagination in 
making Bible scenes and Bible truths real to 
the pupils, in the telling of Bible stories. 

4. Memory 

Memory is the power of the mind to recall 
past perceptions and images. There are two 
great laws of memory. They are impression 
and association. It is important first to have a 
clear, vivid impression of the truth. This is 
gotten by giving attention, by repeating over 
and over again, by writing out, by using more 
than one of the senses. 

Also, we remember what is associated with 
something else. The new must be tied on to 
the old. Truth must be taught in an orderly 
way. In learning, one must get a clear under- 



The Laws of the Mind 93 

standing of the new truth, and must know it in 
its relation to what has already been learned. 

o. Reason 

Reason is the process of making distinctions 
and of reaching conclusions. In reasoning, we 
compare, we note likenesses and differences, 
we judge one thing to be better than another, 
we decide that certain things are bad and that 
others are good. When one is able to say for 
himself that it is better to read the Bible than 
to read the Sunday newspapers, that it is better 
to go to Sunday-school than to go fishing, that 
the Christian life is the best life to live, then 
he has done some thinking. He has gone 
through a process of reasoning. 

It is all right for a boy to go to Sunday- 
school because his parents tell him to go, but it 
is a better thing when he can be led to reason 
about it and decide for himself that it is the 
thing to do. So with avoiding bad habits. The 
teacher should give the pupils reasons, should 
appeal to the reason, should teach how to rea- 
son in connection with the Bible, with Christ, 
with the Christian life. 
6. Emotion 

The emotions, or feelings, constitute the 
heart of the mind. By emotions we do not 
mean mere sentiment, but the high powers of 



94 Sunday School Experience 

the soul, such as love, respect, reverence. The 
teacher should seek to cultivate the emotions 
of the pupils. He should seek to get them to 
feel as they ought towards Christ, the Bible, 
the Sunday-school, the preaching service, the 
minister, the parents, the truth. 

The pupils should be led to conduct them- 
selves in an orderly manner in the Sunday- 
school, to bow the head and close the eyes dur- 
ing prayer, to admire the pure and unselfish in 
the heroes and heroines of the Bible and in 
other good people. They should be led to see 
that the Christian life is the most beautiful life, 
and should be helped to fall in love with the 
good. The story is one of the most effective 
means in appealing to the emotions. 

7. Will 

The will makes the decisions of the mind and 
turns thought into action. Feelings, emotions, 
impulses, must be converted into good words 
and good deeds. The teacher must learn to 
strike while the iron is hot. Arouse the proper 
emotions, and then get the pupils to act in line 
with these emotions. 

The teacher should not begin to be satisfied 
when he secures attention and entertains and 
imparts information. He must get the pupils 
to act, to decide and do. Good teaching in- 



The Laws of the Mind 95 

volves training. Following the impression by 
the teacher, there must be expression on the 
part of the pupil. 

Pupils must be led and directed in the doing 
of good things until good habits are formed. 
They must be taught to do the hard things as 
well as the easy things. They must be induced 
to want to do right, led to decide to do the 
right, and gotten actually to do the right. The 
will is the citadel of the soul, and the teacher 
must storm that and take it for the good of the 
pupil, for the sake of the cause of Christ and 
for the glory of God. 

8. Instincts 

"Instincts are natural tendencies to act in 
certain ways which result from the inborn 
organization of the nervous system. This or- 
ganization is a matter, partly of inheritance 
from the race as a whole, partly of inheritance 
from our immediate ancestors, and partly of 
the original variations which constitute our in- 
dividual endowment. In any case, an action is 
instinctive just in so far as one does not need 
to learn it, or to acquire the tendency to do it. ' ' 

The three main classes of instincts are the 
following: (1) Individualistic, those that 
make for the velfare of the agent, as crying, 
taking nourishment, winking, fearing, fighting, 



96 Sunday School Experience 

collecting, curiosity; (2) R'acial, those that 
make for the continuance of the species, as 
love, jealousy, blushing; (3) Social, those that 
make for the preservation of society, as socia- 
bility, sympathy, play, imagination, self-sacri- 
fice. 

The instincts profoundly influence the life 
from birth to death, and the teacher needs to 
make a study of them. The instincts do not ap- 
pear in the individual all at one time, but 
"ripen" from time to time, and the great fun- 
damental differences that appear in the great 
life periods of the pupil are due largely to this 
fact. When an instinct ripens, new interests 
appear, and these interests make it possible to 
secure attention and to teach certain truths. 

The instincts are at the very basis of the life, 
and they will largely make or mar the charac- 
ter. Education consists in large measure in the 
proper control of the instincts. The teacher 
needs to study how to help the pupil to control 
and direct the instinctive impulses of fear, 
anger, sympathy, acquisition, love, etc. In- 
stinctive actions tend to become habits and to 
become more intelligent. And It is habit, for 
the most part, that dominates the life. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Define psychology. 



The Laws of the Mind 97 

2. Describe perceptions and show how they 
are important. 

3. Describe and illustrate conceptions. 

4. Define imagination, and show its im- 
portance in religion. 

5. What is memory, and what are the two 
laws of memory? 

6. Define and discuss reason. 

7. Describe the emotions and their im- 
portance to the teacher. 

8. Define will, and show what the teacher 
has to do with the will of the pupil. 

9. Name some of the instincts. 

What Others Say 

See chapters VIII, IX and X in Weigle's 
"The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 65-88. See 
also St. John's "Child Nature and Child Nur- 
ture," and Slattery's "Talks with the Training 
Class." See also any of the standard psychol- 
ogies. 



98 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XIII 
CRADLE ROLL RABIES 

The cradle roll, sometimes called baby roll, 
is a roll of the names of the babies of the con- 
gregation. These babies belong to the Sunday- 
school. They are too young to attend regularly, 
but as cradle roll babies they are actually mem- 
bers of the Sunday-school during the first three 
or four years of their lives. 

1. Why the Cradle Roll 

The cradle roll makes it possible for one to 
be connected with the Sunday-school from the 
very first day of his life. As soon as he is old 
enough, he will attend Sunday-school — and it 
will be the Sunday-school that has his name 
already on the cradle roll. This Sunday-school 
has shown an interest in him, and he is now in- 
terested in this Sunday-school. 

Moreover, the cradle roll, not only ties the 
pupil on to the Sunday-school beforehand, but 
it helps him before he begins to attend. He will 
be profoundly influenced by the certificate of 
membership, the birthday cards, and the little 



Cradle Roll Babies 99 

presents and attentions, particularly later as he 
comes to appreciate their significance. 

Then, the cradle roll is an indirect help to the 
baby, because it helps the mother to be a better 
mother. It .helps her to better appreciate both 
the Sunday-school and her baby. It makes her 
a more sympathetic and a more intelligent 
mother. 

Also the cradle roll wins the parents to the 
Sunday-school. Indeed it is a question as to 
whether it helps more the baby or the parents. 
Often the quickest way to the parents' hearts 
is by way of the baby. Sometimes whole 
families are won to the Sunday-school and to 
the church by means of the cradle roll. 

A cradle roll superintendent in a small town 
was on the way home from the postoffice with 
a new cradle roll, and as she passed a house in- 
to which a new family had recently moved, she 
heard a baby crying. She stopped and intro- 
duced herself with, "I heard the music, and I 
stopped in to see the music-box." Then she 
showed her new cradle roll and explained what 
it was for, and left with the name of the "music- 
box" as her first cradle roll baby. Not long 
afterwards, the baby's mother, father, two 
brothers and one sister were interested and 
brought to Christ and into the church. That 
was one of the things that one cradle roll did. 



100 Sunday School Experience 

2. The Supplies Needed 

The cradle roll itself is a large sheet of white 
cardboard or celluloid on which the names of 
the babies are written. Sometimes the names 
are written upon little cards which are slipped 
into slits in the cardboard. The cradle roll 
may be had of the Sunday-school supply house, 
or it may be made at home. The writer has 
seen them decorated with hand-painted 
flowers, done by someone in the local Sunday- 
school. 

The cradle roll may be protected with glass 
and frame, and it should be hung in a con- 
spicuous place in the room where the beginners 
meet on Sunday. A small kodak picture of the 
baby may be pasted opposite the name. 

Sometimes the cradle roll is not a roll at all, 
but a little toy cradle or go-cart, painted white 
and prettily lined with pink or blue, on which 
are tied little cards with the names of the 
babies, narrow pink ribbon being used for the 
boys and blue for the girls. 

There are needed enrollment, or application, 
cards and membership certificates and birth- 
day cards and a record book, or cards. The en- 
rollment card should have blanks for the name, 
address, birthday, date of enrollment, and 
name of parents. These cards are used in en- 



Cradle Roll Babies 101 

rolling the members, and then may be filed, by 
months or alphabetically. 

The membership certificate is sent to the 
mother as soon as the baby is enrolled. On it 
is a beautiful picture of the nativity or of a 
baby in a cradle, and also the name of the 
baby, the date of birth and of enrollment, and 
the signatures of the pastor, superintendent of 
the Sunday-school and the superintendent of 
the crade roll department. 

Attractive birthday cards may be had in 
great variety, and one of these, properly sign- 
ed, is sent to the baby on its birthday. The en- 
rollment cards may be used as permanent 
records, or there may be an additional card 
system of records, or a book may be used for 
permanent records. 

3. Some Plans of Work 

There must be a superintendent of the cradle 
roll department. She may be the superintend- 
ent of the beginners' department or someone 
else who loves babies, who believes in the im- 
portance of the cradle roll, who will give time 
to the work, and who has tact in visiting the 
homes. 

An important part of the work is the enroll- 
ing of the babies. They should be enrolled at 
the earliest possible moment after birth. The 



102 Sunday School Experience 

superintendent should feel that she is entitled 
to all the babies in the families connected with 
her church, and also all the babies in the com- 
munity on which no other Sunday-school has a 
rightful claim. She may learn of possible 
cradle roll members through the brothers and 
sisters in the beginners and primary depart- 
ments, through the workers in the Sunday- 
school, and through announcements in the 
papers. 

The Sunday after the baby is enrolled, there 
should be a little welcome service in the begin- 
ners' department, consisting of the placing of 
the name upon the cradle roll and of a song and 
a prayer. The song may be sung or recited. 
One of these songs, sung to the tune of "Little 
Drops of Water, " is as follows : 

"Welcome, precious baby, to our Cradle Roll, 
Here a place is waiting for each tiny soul. 
On the earth our Savior little children blessed, 
In his arms he took them, held them to his 

breast. 
Still he calls them to Him, no one is too small, 
For the tender Shepherd loves and wants us 

all." 

A sample of a prayer which may be said by 
the children in such a service is the following : 

"Heavenly Father, hear our prayer: 



Cradle Boll Babies 103 

Keep within Thy constant care 
This dear baby Thou hast sent, 
To its loving parents lent, 
To be taught and trained for you. 
May our school its mission do, 
Love and pray for, guard it, too." 

Occasionally there should be a cradle roll 
day in the beginners' department, when the 
babies and the mothers are invited to attend, 
and a short service is held in their honor. A 
welcome is sung to the mothers and babies, and 
a flower may be given to each little visitor. 
And, always, on the Sunday closest to the 
birthday, the baby should be remembered in 
prayer. 

At Christmas time, the babies should be re- 
membered by the cradle roll superintendent 
with some little toy. On Rally Day and on 
Children's Day, the babies and their mothers 
may be invited and shown some attention. The 
cradle roll may be read on Children's Day. 

When the baby is sick, the cradle roll super- 
intendent shows interest by a telephone in- 
quiry or by a visit in person or by sending flow- 
ers. When one of the babies dies, there are ex- 
pressions of sympathy and there are flowers at 
the funeral from the cradle roll department. 

The cradle roll department should own some 
good books for mothers, and these should be 



104 Sunday School Experience 

taken to the mothers and loaned to them to 
read. The list should include such books as 
''Fireside Child Study," "Misunderstood Chil- 
dren," and "Problems of Babyhood." Some- 
times also the mothers can be induced to sub- 
scribe for a mother's magazine, or the cradle 
roll department may subscribe for them. 

When the cradle roll baby is about four 
years of age, the name should be enrolled in the 
beginners' department. The name may be 
erased from the cradle roll or may be checked 
by a small gilt star. Sometimes the superin- 
tendent of the cradle roll department has 
junior girls as assistants, called "guardian 
angels, "and these assistants go after the cradle 
roll babies when they are promoted to the be- 
ginners' department, provided circumstances 
are such that the mothers cannot bring them. 

4. How Babies Think 

The cradle roll superintendent should be an 
earnest student of the first three years of child- 
hood. She should read some of the books on 
the subject, and should learn how to study the 
children themselves. . 

Babies do not think as adults think. At the 
first they have scarcely any mind at all. The 
baby's little world is just a "big, blooming, 
buzzing confusion." 



Cradle Roll Babies 105 

At birth, a baby is practically blind. He does 
not really see anything. He can only stare into 
empty space. He has no control over the mus- 
cles that move the head and eyes. After a few 
weeks, there, is an instinctive turning to the 
light, and a certain kind of pleasure is ex- 
perienced. At about six weeks or two months, 
he begins to look at objects with attention. At 
three or four months, he can give definite direc- 
tion to the gaze and hold it there, and so really 
sees for the first time. Now sensation is becom- 
ing perception. At five or six months, he has 
some idea of size and distance, and will reach 
for things. At about one year, he begins to dis- 
tinguish between colors. 

As to hearing, the baby is not sensible to 
sounds at all for the first few hours. After a 
week, he begins to be sensible to sounds, or at 
least to be garred by them. At three or four 
months, he begins to turn the head toward the 
sound. At about six months, there is active 
hearing with attention, and he begins to know 
when he is scolded and to distinguish the 
parents' voices. 

The infant experiences touch sensations 
almost from the very first, and later it is 
through touch sensations that he attains the 
notion of self. He touches portions of his own 
body, and then some external thing, and after 
awhile perceives the difference between the 



106 Sunday School Experience 

sensations. So, after some months, he finds out 
that his foot belongs to himself. 

So the taste sensations, and other sensations, 
gradually yield perceptions. In short, while it 
is true that the infant has some dim ideas from 
the first few days of life, at the same time, the 
powers of the mind develop very slowly. At 
the beginning, the life is controlled largely by 
sensations. It seems a simple process to us to 
know what an object is, and to distinguish it 
from other objects, but to the infant it is a 
slow, painful process. He gains this knowl- 
edge at the cost of many tumbles and knocks 
and scratches. 

Even in the latter part of this period, percep- 
tion, memory, imagination, conception, reason, 
emotion and will do not play so important a 
part as we sometimes think, for, in the second 
and third years, these little children ' ' do clever 
things, and say brilliant words, by imitation 
and accident, not knowing the meaning of 
them." 

During the first three years of the child's 
life, much attention should be given to food, 
clothing, ventilation and environment; and 
they should be shielded from loud noises, harsh 
voices, sudden changes, shaking and rocking, 
and dirt, 



Cradle Roll Babies 107 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is the cradle roll, or baby roll? 

2. What can you say as to the value of the 
cradle roll? Illustrate. 

3. Name the supplies needed for a cradle 
roll department. 

4. What is said in this lesson about enroll- 
ing the babies ? 

5. Tell of a welcome service for the new 
members. 

6. What other suggestion impresses you 
most favorably? 

7. What impresses you most in the thinking 
of babies? Explain. 

8. Give at least one example of the think- 
ing of a child under four years of age. 

What Others Say 

See DuBois' "Fireside Child Study," Har- 
rison's "Misunderstood Children," Fitz' 
"Problems of Babyhood," Perez' "The First 
Three Years of Childhood," Tracy's "The 
Psychology of Childhood," Sully's "Studies of 
Childhood," and Kirkpatrick's "Funda- 
mentals of Child Study." See also chapter 
XII in Sudlow's "All About the Primary," 
pages 71-76, chapter XIV in Black's "Practical 
Primary Plans," pages 121-125, and pages 47- 
51 in Mead's "Modern Methods in Sunday 
School Work." 



108 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XIV 
WORK WITH BEGINNERS 

Pupils in the Sunday-school who are four 
and five years of age are usually called begin- 
ners. And, when they have their own separate 
room and exercises and teaching, they consti- 
tute the beginners' department — sometimes 
called kindergarten department. 

1. Some Essentials 

There are some things that are essential to 
the best success in the beginners' department. 

(1) A Superintendent. There needs to be a 
superintendent of the beginners' 'department. 
If the school be small and there are only a few 
pupils four and five years of age, then the one 
teacher can be also the superintendent. This 
superintendent being responsible for this one 
department, will study its problems and do 
more effective work than any general superin- 
tendent. In addition to the superintendent, 
there should be a secretary, a pianist or organ- 
ist, and at least two teachers, if the department 
is large enough. 

(2) A separate room. This room should be 



Work with Beginners 109 

on the main floor, so the children will not have 
to climb stairs. A dark, musty, basement room 
is bad. If it seems impossible to have a separ- 
ate room at all, the beginners may be screened 
or curtained -off to themselves during the teach- 
ing period. But the superintendent of this de- 
partment should not rest satisfied until she has 
a suitable room for the work. She should pray 
and plan and plead until she gets what she 
needs. 

(3) Proper equipment. The beginners should 
have little, red chairs, and should be seated 
around a low table for the teaching, with about 
six pupils in a class. Their room should be 
carpeted, and furnished with a piano or organ, 
a desk or cabinet for supplies, a blackboard, 
some charts, a sand tray and other kinder- 
garten materials, and there should be pictures 
on the walls. 

(4) A suitable program. The beginners 
should have their own program, suited to their 
needs. They should not be with the rest of the 
school in the opening and closing services, ex- 
cept on special occasions. A program that fits 
the adults has nothing in it for the beginners — 
except harm. Of course, if the beginners have 
no separate room, then they must be kept with 
the primary department or with the rest of the 
school, until they get a room, and, in that case, 



110 Sunday School Experience 

they should have some suitable part in the 
opening service. 

(5) Graded lessons. The beginners' graded 
lessons, which may be had from the denomina- 
tional publishing house, should be used in this 
department. They meet the needs of the begin- 
ners as the uniform lessons cannot. They are 
easier to teach and far more helpful to the 
children. The lessons used in the other depart- 
ments do not fit, except occasionally when they 
happen to hit. Graded lessons should be used 
with the beginners even if uniform lessons are 
used in the rest of the school. If there is only 
one class of beginners, then the first grade les- 
sons should be used the first year and the sec- 
ond grade the second year. 

(6) Promotion Day. There should be pro- 
motion services once or twice a year, when the 
first grade beginners are promoted into the 
second grade, and when the second grade be- 
ginners are graduated into the primary depart- 
ment and given certificates. 

2. Holding the Pupils 

Here, as in other departments, it is good 
teaching mainly that holds the pupils. The 
teaching must be adapted to the narrow circle 
of interests and information of this period of 
life. It must really meet the religious educa- 



Work with Beginners 111 

tional needs of the pupils at this time. If the 
teaching be of this sort it will be attractive to 
the children, and they will want to come. 

However, the good teacher will not stop at 
teaching on Sunday, but will find a way to see 
the pupils in their homes and to get acquainted 
with the parents. In this way the teacher can 
do better teaching, and also can better co- 
operate with the parents and at the same time 
secure their co-operation. 

In addition to teaching and visitation, the 
teacher may make use of various devices in se- 
curing regular and prompt attendance on the 
part of the pupils. She may have on the wall 
of the beginners ' room a large sheet of card- 
board on which have been drawn or stamped in 
outline bunches of grapes, one bunch for each 
pupil, and each bunch having thirteen grapes. 
If the pupil is present and on time, a grape is 
filled in with purple crayon or stamped with 
ink, to represent a ripe grape ; if the pupil is 
late, the grape is made green, to represent a 
green grape ; and, if the pupil is absent, the 
grape is left blank. At the end of the quarter, 
the bunches of grapes are cut out and given to 
the children to take home with them. Each 
will want to have a perfect, ripe bunch. 

A variation of this plan is to have the names 
on the sheet of cardboard, and opposite each 
name as many little squares as there are weeks 



112 Sunday School Experience 

in the quarter. A gilt star in the square means 
present and on time, a blue dot means late, and 
the blank means absent. Attention should be 
called to the marks from Sunday to Sunday. 

There is another variation of this plan. At 
the end of each month the pupil gets a souvenir 
of some kind, with some indication as to the 
number of times he has been present. For in- 
stance, in Washington's Birthday month, each 
pupil may receive a little red hatchet, cut from 
cardboard, and on the hatchet are pasted gilt 
flags or stars to indicate the attendance, and in 
the Easter month, a little rabbit, cut out of 
cardboard may serve the purpose. Any little 
souvenir appropriate to the season will be good. 
One plan should be used for three months, and 
then another plan should be used. 

8. The Senses Supreme 

The senses are still dominant In this period. 
The beginner's store of perceptions is increas- 
ing, but they are perceptions of the concrete for 
the most part. There are so many things to see 
and hear and feel that he has little time to in- 
quire into the abstract qualities and relations, 
and in fact he has not yet the ability to think 
in the abstract. Now his curiosity is sensory 
curiosity. He likes to prolong his sensations, to 
experience them again and again, and also to 



Work with Beginners 113 

seek new sensations. Later in this period, 
when the child is about five years of age, his 
curiosity begins to become rational curiosity. 
He begins to want to learn the rela- 
tions of things to one another. He begins to 
ask "How?" "Why?" "What for?" "Where 
from?" 

The child thinks, but his thinking has to do 
mainly with acquiring thought materials for 
future use, while the thinking of the adult has 
to do mainly with the working over of 
materials acquired in childhood and youth. 
The teacher needs to keep this in mind, that 
she may not inflict upon the child her "adult- 
ism. ' ' Adultism causes the teacher to treat the 
child as if he were a litle adult. She gets at the 
teaching from her own point of view instead of 
from that of the child. She is thinking of what 
she wants instead of what the child needs. She 
uses words that the child does not understand, 
and presents abstract ideas which the child 
cannot grasp. The adultism of the teacher has 
harmed the child more than measles and scarlet 
fever and diphtheria, because adultism harms 
the soul. 

The teacher who has been cured of adultism 
will not try to teach beginners by simply talk- 
ing to them, and when she does talk, it will be 
mainly in simple stories, put in short, easy 
words and dealing with the concrete. In con- 



114 Sunday School Experience 

nection with the story, she will use pictures and 
objects and sand tray and blackboard. She 
will enlist the self-activities of the pupils 
through sight and touch and muscular sensa- 
tions. And she will see that the room is bright, 
clean, comfortable and attractive. There 
should be on the walls such pictures as ' ' Christ 
Blessing Little Children," "The Good Shep- 
herd," and Carl Mueller's "Nativity." 

4. Immature Imagination 

The pupil in the beginners' department lives 
in a world of make-believe. He is intensely im- 
aginative. He does not distinguish between 
fact and fancy. In imagination, the mind 
makes pictures out of past sense perceptions, 
through the use of the memory, and it invents 
new combinations out of these memories. Now 
the child's memory seems fanciful to the adult 
because the child's memory is yet weak, and he 
cannot recall his sense perceptions just as they 
were. Moreover, he has not many abstract 
facts to guide him in the making of new mental 
pictures out of his memories. 

So this child sees many wonderful things 
that we cannot see at all, and, when he tells us 
of them, we think sometimes that he is lying, 
but he is not. He really sees the wonders of 
which he tells us. We should do him a great 



Work with Beginners 115 

injustice if we treated him as if he were trying 
to deceive us. 

The child's imagination enables him to make 
one thing stand for another. To him, animals 
are a kind of people. A stick or a mark on the 
blackboard may stand for a man. A doll is a 
mother. A walking stick is a horse. He draws 
no sharp distinctions between actual things 
and his ideas of them. To him, there are no 
wonders and miracles — they seem natural to 
him. He accepts them as a matter of course. 
He believes anything you tell him. 

In teaching this beginners' child, appeal may 
be made to the imagination through objects 
with which he is acquainted, through pictures 
of familiar objects, through simple blackboard 
outlines, and through brief, simple stories. 
Finished pictures, elaborate toys, and stories of 
detail are valueless to him because they leave 
nothing for his imagination to do. 

5. Doing as Others Do 

Instinctive imitation is strong in the pupil in 
the beginners' department. He almost uncon- 
sciously does what he sees others do. Then, 
also, the actions of others put ideas into his 
head, constitute suggestions, upon which he 
acts consciously, voluntarily, with a purpose. 
In his imagination, he becomes the other per- 



116 Sunday School Experience 

son, doing as the other does. 

In doing as others do, he is learning. He is 
finding out things by experience. His imita- 
tions enter into his education and become a 
part of him. It is not character or motive that 
he imitates; it is only the action. But his imi- 
tation of the action enters into his own charac- 
ter nevertheless. 

Therefore it is of the highest importance 
that the child have the right actions to imitate. 
The actions in the story should be such as he 
ought to imitate. The teacher herself must be 
very careful as to her actions. She must smile 
and speak in soft tones. A cross, fussy teacher 
will do more harm in her actions than she can 
undo in her words. The teacher must be rever- 
ent in order to teach reverence. She must bow 
her head and close her eyes and maintain a rev- 
erent attitude during prayer. 

6. Planning the Play 

The child 's world is a world of play. We are 
apt to think that our work world is far more 
important than the child's play world, but as a 
matter of fact play is just as important to the 
child as work is to the adult. Play and work 
are the same thing essentially. The child's 
play is an imitation of the adult 's work, and his 
play is fitting him for work. 



Work with Beginners 117 

Play constitutes a large part of the child's 
education. Play develops perception, subordi- 
nates the body to the mind, quickens thought, 
makes accurate judgments, trains the emotions, 
develops the will, and teaches respect and self- 
sacrifice for others. 

What the child wants in play is not amuse- 
ment, but an outlet for his stored energies, 
physical and mental. He must have something 
to do in the play, and he must be left free to do 
largely as he pleases. He needs suggestion, 
but not too much direction. The fewer the 
rules, the better. 

The teacher in the beginners' department 
may take advantage of the play instinct in 
various ways — through motion songs, finger 
games, marches, drills and handwork. For in- 
stance, if the lesson have in it the idea of help- 
fulness, the child might paste a picture of a 
broom in his lesson scrap-book to suggest the 
idea, or he might trace the outline of a broom 
with colored crayon, or he might play " house" 
with the other children, each member of the 
family having some specific thing to do. 

7. Self Is the Center 

The child's big word is "my." Always, with 
him, it is "my Mama," "my Papa," "my 
hands," "my feet," "my shoes," "my hat," 



118 Sunday School Experience 

" my kitty." He is self-centered. He seems to 
care only for himself and his own interests. 

Shall we therefore call him a little heathen, 
and scold him for being a naughty, selfish 
child ? Not at all. It is just as normal for him 
to be self-centered at this age as it is to 
breathe. His individualistic instincts are 
ripening now, but later his social and altru- 
istic instincts will begin to ripen, and then he 
will not be so self-centered. Now he knows 
only about himself and the things that pertain 
to himself, but later he will know others better 
and will understand the relation that exists be- 
tween himself and them. 

We need only to be patient with him and 
give him time. Now he does not appear to 
have a religious nature at all, but he has. That 
is he has a capacity for religion, and he is re- 
ligious, too. He is not religious as an adult is 
religious. He is not yet a Christian. But it has 
been said that the worst child that ever was is 
better than the best man that ever was. If we 
are wise and patient, and teach this self-center- 
ed child as we ought, we shall see him growing 
out of his little egoism into a larger altruism. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Name five essentials in the beginners' de- 
partment. 



Work with Beginners 119 

2. Which of these essentials is the most im- 
portant? Why? 

3. Describe the equipment in the beginners' 
department you know most about. 

4. Tell of one way to hold the pupils in the 
beginners' department. 

5. What is meant by "adultism" and how 
does it harm the child? Illustrate. 

6. Explain why children are unjustly ac- 
cused of lying. Give an example. 

7. How may the teacher appeal to the 
imagination of the child in teaching ? 

8. Give an illustration of the power of ex- 
ample in dealing with children four and five 
years of age. 

9. How may the teacher take advantage of 
the play instinct in children? 

10. What should be done with the self-cen- 
tered child? Give an illustration. 

What Others Say 

See Wray's "The Beginners' Department," 
St. John's "Child Nature and Child Nurture," 
and Wood 's ' ' Chalk. ' ' See also the three chap- 
ters on "Early Childhood" in Lamoreaux' 
"The Unfolding Life," pages 37-101, and chap- 
ter III in Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teach- 
er, " pages 22-29. 



120 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XV 
THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT 

The primary department is composed of 
pupils six, seven and eight years of age. The 
department may be divided into first, second 
and third grade primary. 

1. The Organization of the Department 

The primary pupils have distinctive charac- 
teristics and needs, and, while the work done 
with them should be in harmony with that of 
the whole school, at the same time they should 
be organized into a department of their own, 
with separate officers, separate room, proper 
equipment, a suitable program, graded lessons 
and promotions and graduations. All that was 
said regarding the beginners in section one of 
the previous lesson will apply with equal force 
to the primary department. In addition to the 
equipment there designated, the primary de- 
partment will need some Scripture and song 
rolls, some Oriental models, and some mission 
curios. 

The only reason for having the children with 
the older pupils is that the adults like to see 
them there. For years in a certain school, the 



The Primary Department 121 

beginners and primary departments were pres- 
ent with the adults for at least a half hour 
every Sunday, during the opening "exercises," 
for the teaching, they marched the entire 
and, when they went to their separate rooms 
length of the auditorium and back the other 
aisle, for the entertainment of the adults. 
Finally the adults came to see that the question 
was not what they wanted, but what the chil- 
dren needed, and thereafter the members of the 
beginners and primary departments were kept 
in their own rooms for the whole time, and 
there intelligent effort was made to meet their 
religious needs. 

2. Characteristics of Primary Pupils 

There are no sudden changes in the pupil as 
he passes from the beginners' department into 
the primary department, but gradually 
changes are beginning to manifest themselves. 
These changes appear all the more marked be- 
cause the pupil is in the day school now and 
has entered a larger world. He is having new 
experiences, and he is attaining new points of 
view. He knows more about other children of 
his own age, and is compelled to take more ac- 
count of them. He is still self-centered. He 
wants to be the biggest one in the group of 
children, but at the same time he wants to be 



122 Sunday School Experience 

with these children. His social instincts are 
beginning to ripen. He likes to play with 
others, but he wants to "beat" them. 

He is still growing rapidly, and is very 
active. He puts no less body into his play, but 
more mind. He plays with more purpose. His 
curiosity is becoming more rational all the 
time. He sees and hears and feels as much as 
before, but his perceptions mean more to him, 
and he is working his perceptions into con- 
cepts. He is learning more words, and his 
words mean more to him. Ideas as well as in- 
stincts are helping him to interpret his new ex- 
periences. 

His imagination is no less active, but it is 
more controlled. He is learning to distinguish 
between fact and fancy. Memory and reason 
are getting stronger, but they are still weak, 
and we must be careful not to require him to 
memorize long passages or to reason like an 
adult. 

He is still imitative, but now he is beginning 
to imitate the doer rather than the deed. So it 
behooves us more and more to be what we 
ought to be before him. We must be open and 
sincere with him. 

3. Training the Emotions 

In the beginners' pupil, it would seem that 



The Primary Department 123 

the imagination is developed ahead of the other 
powers of the mind, while in the primary pupil 
it would seem that the emotions have the sway. 

This is seen in the way he receives a story. 
His memory is still too weak to enable him to 
remember all the details of the story, but he re- 
tains the impression which the story has made 
on him. He cannot yet reason out the story, 
but he has felt it. His emotions have been stir- 
red, and he has been impressed. 

It is important, then, that the primary teach- 
er give large attention to the training of the 
emotions. This may be done as follows : 

(1) By presenting the idea that will tend to 
arouse the desired emotion, through story, song, 
picture and object. 

(2) By indirect suggestion, conveying the im- 
pression, not by saying, "You ought to feel this 
way, ' ' but by presenting examples of those who 
felt as these pupils should feel. For instance, 
when suitable, a story might be told of a child 
who was sorry because he had been bad. 

(3) By significant acts, doing before them 
the thing that would naturally result from the 
emotion which the teacher seeks to arouse in 
the pupils, as when she arouses the emotion of 
reverence when she herself assumes a reveren- 
tial attitude. 

(4) By providing for the expression of the 
emotion aroused, getting the pupils to give 



124 Sunday School Experience 

money to missions, allowing them to help in the 
class, taking them to visit and help a poor 
family. 

4. Securing Self -Expression 

The primary pupils have outgrown the 
motion songs of the beginners' department, 
and the character of the handwork also will 
be changed to some extent. 

One of the best ways to secure self-expres- 
sion in the primary department is to enlist the 
activities of the pupils in the reproduction of 
the lesson story. The pupils may be required to 
reproduce the story immediately after it has 
been told by the teacher, or better probably on 
the following Sunday. The story may be re- 
produced in various ways. Some of these are 
here suggested. 

(1) Telling the story. No one in the class 
probably will be able to tell all the story, but 
all of them together can tell it, one speaking at 
a time, of course. In this exercise, the pupils, 
not only get the full benefit of the story, but 
they are getting fine memoiy training. 

(2) Picturing the- story. Each pupil may tell 
the story in a picture of his own making The 
picture may be drawn in the class, upon the 
blackboard or upon a sheet of paper, or it may 
be drawn at home and brought to the class and 



The Primary Department 125 

exhibited. These pictures should elicit intel- 
ligent and helpful comment from the teach- 
er. The work may be crude, but it will help 
the pupils in forming definite and clear mental 
pictures, and will train the imagination and 
strengthen the power of attention. 

(3) Playing the story. Let the pupils act 
out the story. The teacher may give sugges- 
tions as to how the story is to be acted, but at 
the same time the pupils should be encouraged 
to have their own ideas regarding the story, 
and to act these out. No one should be allowed 
to act the part of God or Jesus. 

(4) Illustrating the story. This may be done 
by tearing paper, or by cutting out silhouettes 
from paper, to represent something involved in 
the story. It may be done by pasting appropri- 
ate pictures of persons or objects in the lesson 
scrap-book. The pictures used may be furnish- 
ed by the school, through the teacher, or may 
be cut out of periodicals and catalogues by the 
pupils at home. 

(5) Writing the story. This can be done 
only by the more advanced pupils in this de- 
partment, but even the pupils six years of age 
can at least print the title of the story in the 
scrap-book and can illustrate it with a pasted 
picture or by drawing a picture. 



126 Sunday School Experience 

5. The Primary Program 

Much attention should be given to the pro- 
gram in the primary department. It should be 
carefully prepared beforehand, that it may 
meet the real needs of the pupils and that there 
may be no confusion and delays. The superin- 
tendent should study programs prepared by 
others, as suggestions, and make her program 
her own as far as possible. The program should 
be varied from Sunday to Sunday. 

Programs for special occasions will differ 
from the regular programs. There will be 
special programs for Children's Day, Rally 
Day, Promotion Day, and other special occa- 
sions. Always the program should be written 
out for use on Sunday, and then kept for future 
reference. One of the best ways is to use a 
loose leaf note book. On one side of the sheet 
may be written the program and on the other 
a brief summary of the day's doings — attend- 
ance, offering, weather, birthdays, new pupils, 
etc. 

A suggestive program is here given. (1) 
Quiet music. A few chords should be played 
on the piano or organ to get attention. A bell 
should not be used. The opening should be 
right on time. (2) Praise or call to worship. 
The teacher may say, "The Lord is in his holy 
temple," and the class, "Let all the earth keep 



The Primary Department 12 T 

silence before Him," or brief praise verses may 
be used. (3) Song or prayer. Something ap- 
propriate to what has just been quoted. (4) 
God's Word for children. For example, the 
teacher may say, "Remember now thy Creator 
in the days of thy youth," and the pupils may 
respond, "Jesus said, Suffer little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of Heaven." (5) Prayer. 
Either by the superintendent or a teacher. 
Sometimes the pupils pray in unison a little 
prayer in rhyme. (6) Song. This may be one 
of the standard hymns or a song prepared 
especially for children. (7) Birthday service. 
This consists of a birthday song to the child 
who has had a birthday, the receiving of the 
birthday pennies and an appropriate prayer. 
(8) Offering service. The collection of money 
brought by pupils and a song or a prayer. (9) 
March to classes. The playing of a march helps 
the classes to take their places in an orderly 
way. (10) Marking the records. The record 
of attendance and punctuality is best made by 
the teacher in the clas before beginning the les- 
son. (11) Lesson study. Time, fifteen or twenty 
minutes. (12) Closing service. This consists 
of a march, brief Scripture by pupils, song, 
closing prayer, and distribution of papers. 



128 Sunday School Experience 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Give reasons for or against having the 
primary pupils in a separate room for the open- 
ing and closing services. 

2. Describe some characteristics of primary 
pupils, and give an incident that will illustrate 
one of them. 

3. Explain how it is that a story may help 
the primary pupil though he cannot remember 
the details. 

4. Name four suggestions as to the training 
of the emotions, and give one illustration. 

5. Describe one of the ways in which the 
story may be reproduced by the pupil. 

6. Give a concrete example, if possible, of 
how a story has been reproduced by a primary 
pupil. 

What Others Sat 

See Sudlow's "All About the Primary," and 
Walker and Jenks' "Songs and Games for the 
Little Ones." See also chapter IV in Weigle's 
"The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 30-37, 
chapter V in Lamoreaux' "The Unfolding 
Life," pages 103-127, and part of chapter IV in 
Mead's "Modern Methods in Sunday School 
Work," pages 55-64. 



LESSON XVI 
. JUNIOR BOYS AND GIRLS 

The boys and girls from nine to twelve years 
of age should be organized into a junior depart- 
ment, with a separate room properly furnished, 
with materials for handwork, and with first, 
second, third and fourth grade junior graded 
lessons. 

1. Cood Health and Energy 

"In both sexes, it is a time of good health 
and of boundless energy." The junior period 
is one of comparatively slow growth, and so 
there is much energy for resisting disease and 
for games and work and study. 

The juniors are full of dash and do and dar- 
ing. They are noisy and mussy, and they are 
apt to get on the nerves of their elders, but it 
will help us if we understand that they ought 
to be just as they are. We ought to thank God 
for their energy, for they are not apt to get 
hurt, they do not often get sick, and very few 
of them die. We have no cause to worry 
about them if only we will expend our energies 
in directing their energies. 



130 Sunday School Experience 

The teacher of the juniors has a fine oppor- 
tunity to do some excellent teaching, for he can 
count on abounding physical and mental activ- 
ity. The junior likes to know things and do 
things, and his teacher should make large use 
of handwork — writing, the making of maps 
and models, the drawing of pictures, and the 
handling of pictures, objects and models — and 
should feed his active mind with numerous 
Bible facts presented in a bright, interesting 
way. The stories used in teaching juniors 
should abound in action. They are interested 
in people who do things. 

2. The Gang Spirit 

The social instincts are beginning to ripen, 
and the juniors like to be with others of their 
own age. They are less dependent on parents 
and teachers now, and more dependent on other 
juniors. They are finding out that it pays to 
co-operate with others in the working off of 
their energies. They will now play more ac- 
cording to rules. Team play now becomes pos- 
sible. The junior is influenced by the opinion 
of other juniors, and has a strong sense of 
honor. 

If left to themselves, the boys will organize 
into "gangs" and the girls into " crowds' ' or 
societies — secret, industrial, literary, etc. The 



Junior Boys and Girls 131 

Sunday-school should lay hold of this tendency 
to organize into groups by organizing each 
class in the junior department, with constitu- 
tion, officers, week-day meetings, definite 
duties and- privileges. 

The boys should be separated from the girls 
in the junior department, if the best results 
are to be obtained. Even in a small school, 
there should be at least two classes, one of boys 
and another of girls; and, in a school of some 
size, there will be four classes of boys and four 
of girls. The boys do not like the girls, and the 
girls do not like the boys. The girls are now 
developing more rapidly than the boys. They 
are apt to be taller and heavier than the boys, 
particularly in the latter part of this period, 
and they learn more quickly. The interests of 
boys are getting to be different from those of 
girls. Boys and girls do not enjoy the same 
games, as a rule. 

Boys are getting tremendously interested in 
baseball, basket ball, foot ball, hunting, fishing, 
exploring, collecting, and sometimes in fighting. 
One reason why the teacher of junior boys 
should be a man if possible, is because a man 
can enter into their outdoor activities, at least 
in sympathy, and to some extent actually 

3. The Reading Age 

The junior has learned to read with ease and 



132 Sunday School Experience 

pleasure, and the Sunday-school should have an 
important part in the direction of his reading. 
His lesson helps should be the kind that send 
him to the Bible. Every junior should have a 
Bible in his hands every Sunday, and the class 
should be drilled in the finding of passages 
and incidents in the Bible. 

The junior pupils may be required to read in 
other books than the Bible, in connection with 
the lessons. Use should be made of the public 
library, where there is a good one, but in any 
ease that will need to be supplemented by a 
special junior Sunday-school library containing 
books which will make a religious impression 
upon the boys and girls in this department. 

There are many good books which are suitable 
for the purpose — books of biograpny, of stories, 
of travel, etc. The list should include some 
biographies of missionaries. The books should 
not be goody-goody books, but they should be 
good books. They should be books that are 
wholesome and that will make an impression 
upon the religious nature of the junior. They 
should abound in action, telling what was done, 
and not so much what was said and thought. 
The whole life of the junior may !)e profoundly 
influenced by the reading of one book. 

It will be well to get a list of books suitable 
for pupils of this age from some one who is 
competent to advise. A good list is "Selected 



Junior Boys and Girls 133 

Books for Boys/' by C. B. Kern, Y. M. C. A. 
Press, 124 E 28 th Street, New York, price fif- 
teen cents. Another list for boys may be had 
from any Boy Scouts' worker. 

4. The Memory Period 

The junior period is the great memory 
period. The junior's imagination has been 
toned down and it is now under control. He 
distinguishes between the world of fact and of 
fancy. He sees things as they are. Indeed, 
this has been called the literal age, the matter- 
of-fact age. He is enamored of facts. He 
revels in them, and he remembers them. Tell 
him a story now, and he will want to know if it 
is true. 

During the four years of the junior period, 
the minds of the pupils should be stored with 
the great passages of the Bible, with facts 
about the Bible, with Bible history and geogra- 
phy, with the deeds of the Bible heroes and 
heroines, and with the great hymns. These 
should be drilled into the juniors until they 
can repeat them from memory. Of course, 
they should be helped to understand what they 
memorize as far as that is possible, but, any- 
way, they should memorize. A fuller under- 
standing will come later. If a catechism is to 



134 Sunday School Experience 

be taught, this is the time to drill it into the 
pupils. 

It has been suggested that juniors should 
memorize the following passages of Scripture 

(1) The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17 

(2) The Disciples' Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13 

(3) The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12; (4) God's 
Care, Matthew 6:24-34; (5) The Two House- 
builders, Matthew 7:24-27; (6) The Parables of 
the Kingdom, Matthew 13:1-9, 31-33, 44-50; 
(7) The Parables of Rescue, Luke 15; (8) The 
Praise of Love, I. Corinthians 13; (9) The Con- 
trol of the Tongue, James 3 :1-12 ; (10) The 
Word Made Flesh, John 1 :1-14; (11) The Great 
Savior, John 3:14-21; (12) The Way of Life, 
John 14:1-6; (13) Exhortation to Consecration, 
Romans 12; (14) Hope of Immortality, I. Cor- 
inthians 15:50-58; (15) The Two Paths, 
Proverbs 4:14-19; (16) The Heavenly City, 
Revelation 21:1-8, 22-27; 22:1-7; (17) The Ap- 
peal to Youth, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; (18) The 
Suffering Savior, Isaiah 53; (19) Psalms 1, 8, 
19, 23, 34, 46, 90, 91, 100, 103, 121, 146. 

The following are among the hymns suggest- 
ed for the juniors to memorize : (1) Holy, Holy, 
Holy— Heber; (2> Doxology— Ken ; (3) Near- 
er My God, To Thee— Adams; (4) When I Sur- 
vey the Wondrous Cross — Watts; (5) Rock of 
Ages— Toplady ; (6) Sun of My Soul— Keble; 
(7) The Son of God Goes Forth to War— 



Junior Boys and Girls 135 

Heber; (8) Lead, Kindly Light — Newman; (9) 
In the Cross of Christ I Glory — Browning; (10) 
Abide with Me— Lyte; (11) Hark, Hark, My 
Soul— Faber; (12) Guide Me, Oh, Thou Great 
Jehovah — Williams; (13) Come, Thou 
Almighty King — Wesley; (14) I Love Thy 
Kingdom, Lord— Dwight; (15) My Faith 
Looks up to Thee — Palmer; (16) Savior, Like 
a Shepherd Lead Us— Thropp; (17) Oh, 
Master, Let Me Walk with Thee — Gladden ; 
(18) Jesus, Lover of My Soul— Wesley; (19) 
Blest Be the Tie That Binds— Fawcett ; (20) 
Just as I Am— Elliott; (21) Who Is on the 
Lord's Side — Havergal; (22) Love Divine, All 
Love Excelling — Wesley; (23) How Firm a 
Foundation — Keene; (24) When He Cometh, 
When He Cometh— Cushing ; (25) 0, Little 
Town of Bethlehem— Brooks : (26) Take My 
Life — Havergal; (27) Safely Through Another 
Week— Xewton; (28) What a Friend We Have 
in Jesus — Scriven; (29) Onward, Christian 
Soldiers — Baring-Gould; (30) Jesus Shall 
Reign Where'er the Sun— Watts; (31) The 
Morning Light Is Breaking — Smith; (32) Hail 
to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning — 
Hastings; (33) Sovereign of Worlds, Display 
Thy Power — Draper; (34) From Greenland's 
Icy Mountains — Heber; (35) Jesus, I My Cross 
Have Taken — Lyte; (36) How Sweet the Name 
of Jesus Sounds — Newton; (37) A Charge to 



136 Sunday School Experience 

Keep I Have — Wesley; (38) Joy to the World 
—Watts; (39) All Hail the Power of Jesus' 
Name — Perronet; (40) Christ, the Lord, Is 
Risen Today — Wesley. 

5, Formation of Habits 

"Habits are more easily formed in this 
period than at any other time of life, and are 
more lasting. A multitude of brain cells are 
just maturing. Impressions are easy, and 
actions between cells quickly established. 
Every boy knows that if he is to become a great 
baseball player he must begin now. Later he 
will not be plastic enough to get the finer knack 
of the man who 'handles himself as if he were 
born to it. ' " 

It is of vital importance, then, that the teach- 
er help the junior to form good habits. If the 
habit of Bible reading be formed it must be 
formed in this period, hence the importance of 
seeing that the juniors read the Bible regu- 
larly, as has already been suggested. 

If the teaching is not such as to command the 
attention of the junior pupil, he will form the 
habit of inattention, and so may be injured 
rather than helped. It is bad enough that the 
pupil should not give attention to the teaching 
of the day, and thus miss the lesson, but it is 
far worse that inattention is becoming a fixed 



Junior Boys and Girls 137 

habit with him. So with irreverence. 

There are people who are late at church all 
their lives because they acquired the habit in 
the junior department of the Sunday-school. It 
is of vital importance to get the juniors to come 
regularly and on time. There should be an 
honor roll for those who are regular and 
prompt in attendance. A careful record should 
be kept for each pupil, and a quarterly report 
sent to the parents. The pupil may be marked 
50 if he is there, 20 more if he is on time, 20 
more if he has studied the lesson, and 10 more 
if he makes a contribution of any amount. 
Some would mark them on bringing the Bible 
and on church attendance. There are many 
plans for marking, but there must be some sys- 
tem and it must be worked. On Promotion 
Day, those who have made a good record 
should receive certificates, and those who have 
not should be advanced without honor. There 
should be a specified time for the marking of 
the records, so that the teaching will not be in- 
terfered with. 

In the junior department much attention 
should be given to equipment and to the pro- 
gram, and much should be made of special 
days, especially Promotion Day. 

6. The Junior and His Hero 

In the latter part of the junior period 
especially, the pupil is a hero-worshipper, and 



138 Sunday School Experience 

his hero is one who does things. The stories of 
the Bible heroes and heroines should be so told 
as to glorify the doing of right things, that the 
pupil may form correct ideals and may be led 
indirectly into the doing of right things. 

Jesus may be so presented to him that he 
will receive him as his greatest hero, and the 
greatest influence in his life. It is thought by 
many that the junior period is the golden age 
of conversion, for the reason that it is the 
reasonable, normal thing for him to receive 
Jesus into his life as his chief hero, and for the 
further reason that he needs to be fixed in 
Jesus and established in the church before he 
enters the period of stress and storm in 
adolescence. 

The teacher may become the junior's hero 
or heroine, if the teacher's life is good and if 
the teaching is good. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. How may the teacher profit by the 
junior's good health and energy? 

2. Give an illustration from experience or 
observation of the gang spirit in juniors. 

3. Why should boys and girls be separated 
in the junior department? 

4. How may the teacher take advantage of 
the fact that the junior likes to read? 



Junior Boys and Girls 139 

5. What can you say of the junior's mem- 
ory? Give an illustration. 

6. Give an instance of the forming of a bad 
habit in the junior department. 

7. What may be said of the importance of 
records in the junior department ? 

8. What is your judgment as to juniors 
joining the church? Illustrate. 

What Others Say 

" After the Primary, What," by McKinney 
is a fairly good treatment of the junior prob- 
lem. See also chapter V in Weigle's "The 
Pupil and the Teacher, ' ' pages 38-45, and chap- 
ter VI in Lamoreaux' "Unfolding Life," 
pages 129-153. 



140 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XVII 

THE BIG BOY 

Boys from thirteen to sixteen years of age 
are included in the intermediate department of 
the Sunday-school. They are in the period of 
early adolescence, and they need to be earnest- 
ly studied that they may be handled intelli- 
gently. 

1. He Is Self-Conscious 

He is apt to think that everybody is looking 
at him, and sometimes he is looking for slights. 
He may be too shy or too bold — but both are 
due to the same cause, his self-consciousness. If 
he is too bold and says pert things, it is to hide 
his embarrassment. 

He does not know what to do with his hands 
and feet. They seem to be about three times 
too large, and he seems to have too many of 
them. When he was a junior, he hardly knew 
that he had hands and feet, but now he feels 
awkward. 

The reason is that he is growing so fast he 
cannot keep up with himself, and the parts of 
the body do not grow at the same rate. "Dur- 



The Big Boy 141 

ing the three years from the twelfth birthday 
to the fifteenth, boys increase in weight forty 
per cent and in height fourteen per cent. At 
fifteen a boy has attained ninety-two per cent 
of his adult height and seventy-six per cent of 
his adult weight." The writer knew a boy 
who grew six inches in height in one year. 

Furthermore, he is new to himself now. As a 
junior he did not stop to think much about 
himself. He took himself as a matter of course, 
but now he is trying to find out who he is. He 
is no longer a junior, and he is not yet a man. 
He is in a trying time of transition. All things 
seem strange to him, even the old. His life 
is full of conflicting impulses and of contradic- 
tions. He meets surprises at every turn. 

We may have a great deal of trouble with 
him, but he has a lot more trouble with himself 
than anybody else ever has with him. What 
he needs is sympathy, and not ridicule and cen- 
sure. Calling him awkward and laughing at 
him and scolding him only makes him worse 
and does infinite harm to his character. 

We need only to understand him and sym- 
pathize with him, and, without saying very 
much to him, go ahead and do the right thing 
with him and for him and before him. Then 
be patient with him. He will come out all right. 

Only convince these boys that you under- 
stand them and are in sympathy with them and 



142 Sunday School Experience 

that you purpose to give them a square deal, 
and you can do with them almost anything that 
ought to be done, if you go about it intelligent- 
ly. 

2. Needs Exercise 

In the junior period, the period of best 
health, the death rate is 4.7, while in the period 
of early adolescence, ages thirteen to sixteen, 
the death rate is 5.5. The intermediate period 
death rate, then, is next to the lowest, and only 
a little higher than in the junior period. It is 
a time of great energy, physical and mental, 
and that energy must have an outlet. 

A father said of a boy of fourteen, "111 club 
the devil out of him." Now, as a matter of 
fact, there was no ' ' devil ' ' in that boy. It was 
energy, life, power, and it needed direction. 
The father was not wise enough to draw it out 
and direct it in useful activities, so he tried to 
club it out. He did not take time to study his 
boy, and he did not take the time to do the 
right thing by him. "There are fathers in all 
walks of life who are so busy making money 
for the boy that they lose the boy himself in 
the process. What shall it profit a man if he 
gains a whole million but loses his son?" 

The Sunday-school teacher of a boy of fifteen 
wanted him to sing a solo in an entertainment. 



The Big Boy 143 

He refused, and she was foolish enough to get 
angry with him and scold him. In writing to 
his sister about it, the boy went on to tell of 
the things he had done in helping to decorate 
the room for the entertainment. It would have 
required far less effort to sing the solo, but he 
would not sing the solo because of his self- 
consciousness. He was afraid of criticism. He 
might have sung in a quartet. 

If the intermediate boys refuse to do what 
we want them to do, it is because we have blun- 
dered. They have the energy for doing and 
they are willing to do, if only we can find the 
right tasks, and can give them proper direc- 
tion and encouragement. Class organization 
will be a great help in this particular. This is 
the time for Junior Agoga, Boy Scouts and 
other forms of organization. Athletics and 
various other forms of organized class activi- 
ties may be used to great advantage. The 
teacher who depends on teaching alone will 
almost certainly fail with boys of this age. 

3. Sense of Power 

This big boy is filled with a new sense of 
power. He is getting to be a man now and he 
feels that he is much bigger than he really is. 
He is apt to rebel against all constituted au- 
thority. It is hard for him to believe that any- 



144 Sunday School Experience 

body has any right to order him to do anything. 
He wants to do as he pleases, and frequently 
he does not please to do the right thing. 

What is to be done with him? We cannot 
allow him to do as he pleases altogether, for 
that would mean his ruin ; and we cannot order 
him about as we did when he was a junior, for 
that also would mean his ruin. We must allow 
him to do as he pleases when no principle of 
right and wrong is involved, when what he 
pleases will not injure himself or others. And, 
when it seems best not to allow him to do as he 
pleases, then we must try to get him to see why 
and get him to decide for the right for himself. 
We must govern him by authority only as a 
last resort, when it seems absolutely necessary. 

Here again class organization will help. The 
organized class is not just the teacher's class; 
it is "our class." The members vote and hold 
office and decide things. They feel that they 
are responsible for the success of the class. 
Their budding manhood is flattered, and their 
expanding selfhood has a chance to assert it- 
self. 

Certain it is that mere authority will not hold 
and help this self-assertive boy. He will run 
away from home unless he is given something 
to own for himself and treated reasonably and 
made to feel that his rights are respected. He 
will run away from the Sunday-school, as more 



The Big Boy 145 

than two millions of them do every year, if he 
is treated as a mere child. 

4. Social Instincts 

"The social instincts now mature rapidly, 
and there is a definite recognition of social 
values. The independence of adolescence is 
tempered by a new sense of social dependence 
and by the desire to be recognized by others, to 
help and to be helped by them. 

A boy in the early junior period writing of 
athletics to his sister, said, "I won." Two or 
three years later, he wrote, "My team won be- 
cause I was on it." And, when he was about 
fifteen, he wrote, "My team won." It is the 
team now, and he is just one of the team. It is 
the class now, and he is just one of the class. 

Xow he is largely governed by what "all the 
fellows do. ' ' Here again is occasion to call at- 
tention to the importance of class organization. 
A lot of high school boys in a certain town of 
about ten thousand people organized them- 
selves, undirected by their elders, into the 
"High Flying Chickens." And, to this or- 
ganization was credited the turning on of the 
water in the high school building, the stealing 
of the ice cream from the back porch on various 
entertainment occasions, the cutting of carpets 
and the destruction of furniture in one of the 



146 Sunday School Experience 

churches, and various other ' ' stunts. ' ' The or- 
ganization of a class of boys that grew to a 
membership of more than one hundred in one 
of the Sunday-schools of the town, with 
various forms of athletics as an attraction, 
converted some of the "chickens" into active 
Sunday-school workers and created a senti- 
ment against the "chicken stunts" among the 
high school boys themselves that was strong 
enough to kill the "High Flying Chickens" as 
an organization. 

The parental instincts also begin now to 
mature. "In the first years of the period, the 
sex-revulsion continues which was characteris- 
tic of later childhood ; but the sexes begin to be 
attracted in its latter half. Boys begin to pay 
attention to their dress, and girls are no longer 
tom-boys. Few pass the age of sixteen without 
some little love affair." 

An excellent book to put into the hands of 
the boy of this period is "From Youth to Man- 
hood," by Winfield S. Hall, published by the 
Young Men's Christian Association Press, New 
York. The price is fifty cents. 

5. Reason and Suggestion 

The higher powers of the mind are now de- 
veloping. The boy begins to reason in the ab- 
stract. He can detect qualities and relations, 



The Big Boy 147 

and can see the connection between cause and 
effect. And he wants to know the reason for 
things. He is not content with the mere say so 
of others. 

In the junior period, he got a lot of facts, 
and now he wants to know their meaning. 
Now the teaching must be more systematic and 
thorough. There must be more explanation, 
but not very much exhortation. He is open to 
suggestion, but it must be indirect suggestion. 
The teacher must think with him, and not for 
him. 

And the kind of suggestion that is most po- 
tent with him is not the suggestion of words, 
but the suggestion of a life. What his teacher 
really is becomes now of profound importance. 
His teacher ought by all means to be a man, 
rather than a woman, because a man can enter 
into his life and be an example to him as a 
woman cannot. He is going to be a man, and 
not a woman ; and, if his teacher is a man who 
is a real man, a Christian man, that in itself 
will mean more to him than anything a teacher 
may say to him. This does not mean that the 
teacher should not know how to teach, of 
course. He ought to know how to teach, but 
even then his life will teach more than his 
words. 

The boy will be influenced, not only by what 
his teacher is, but also by others about him. He 



148 Sunday School Experience 

needs to be surrounded by the right kind of as- 
sociates, and to be brought into contact with as 
many good men as possible. He will be in- 
fluenced also by the great men of history. 
Biography should have a large place in his cur- 
riculum at this time. The lives of Bible and 
other heroes should be presented in such a way 
as to enable the boy to form correct ideals, and 
in such a way as to glorify the good and dis- 
credit the bad. 

As in the latter part of the junior period, he 
is a hero worshipper, but now he does not seek 
merely to be an imitator of the hero ; he is able 
to discern the spirit of the man behind the act, 
and "to feel the intrinsic worth of truth, faith, 
self-sacrifice. He wants now, not only, to do 
what his hero did, but to be what his hero is." 

A boy in an intermediate department was 
asked, in connection with his lesson to name 
two of the greatest men in the world, and he 
wrote the name of his father and that of a Sun- 
day-school specialist who had recently talked 
in his Sunday-school and visited in his home. 
And, speaking of the Sunday-school specialist, 
he said to his mother, "Say, Mama, do you 
think I could ever be like Dr. Blank?" 

Another of these boys had had the Christ 
presented to him as the greatest of all heroes, 
and one day his teacher said to him, "Edward, 
what do you think of Jesus, anyway?" And 



The Big Boy 149 

the boy answered, ' ' Oh, I think he is just fine. ' ' 
If the boy did not declare himself as a Chris- 
tian and come into the church when he was 
about twelve years of age, before he left the 
junior department, then it will be well if, 
early in adolescence, he can be led to see for 
himself that Jesus is "just fine" and to accept 
him as his hero and Savior and friend. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Explain why it is that the adolescent 
boy has so much trouble with himself. 

2. What is the best way to get the "devil" 
out of a boy of fourteen? Give an example of 
how it has been done. 

3. Why is a boy who was obedient at ten in- 
clined to be disobedient at fourteen? 

4. What is the best way to manage a boy 
from thirteen to sixteen? Give an example of 
how one boy was managed. 

5. In section four of this lesson, an illustra- 
tion is given of how the social instincts in a 
group of boys was given proper direction. Can 
you give another illustration? 

6. Why should the intermediate boy have a 
man as teacher? Give an example that will il- 
lustrate section five of this lesson. 



150 Sunday School Experience 

What Others Say 

See Forbush's " Church Work with Boys' ' 
and "The Boy Problem," Hall's "Youth," and 
McKinney's "Our Big Boys." See also the 
chapter on "Early Adolescence" in Weigle's 
"The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 47-55 and 
the chapter on "Adolescence" in Lamoreaux' 
"The Unfolding Life," pages 155-172. 



LESSON XVIII 
. INTERMEDIATE GIRLS 

When the girl enters her teens she enters a 
new, strange world. She is no longer a girl, 
and she is not yet a woman. She is in the try- 
ing time of transition. 

1. Rapid Growth 

The period from thirteen to sixteen is one 
of very rapid growth. The girl at fifteen has 
reached in height ninety-seven per cent and in 
weight ninety per cent of her full growth. 
' ' Girls are taller than boys from the twelfth to 
the fifteenth years, and heavier from the thir- 
teenth to the fifteenth. After fifteen boys ex- 
ceed both in height and weight." 

The girl in her early teens is growing so fast 
and is so "shapeless" that it is almost impos- 
sible to get clothes to fit her. And, if per- 
chance, something should be found to fit her 
today, it would not fit her tomorrow. "The 
girl in her teens has a physical side of tre- 
mendous significance and importance, for it is 
during these years that she develops her 
powers or wrecks them. It is her time of rapid 



152 Sunday School Experience 

growth, of severe tax upon every part of her 
physical being. It is during these years she 
meets her crises." 

This is the time when much attention should 
be given to food and exercise. This girl must 
have plenty of wholesome food, outdoor exer- 
cise, and sleep. She must be helped to grow 
straight and strong and healthy. "There are 
so many pale, anemic, tired girls that move 
one's heart. Some work too hard. Many live 
under unhygienic conditions. Many cannot 
stand the pressure and rush of school and social 
life. Great numbers suffer from improper food, 
and many more because they do not get enough 
sleep." Many a woman has endured long years 
of agony because her health was neglected in 
her early teens. 

The girl in her early teens should be en- 
couraged to play tennis or croquet — anything 
to get her into the open air. She should be 
given physical culture under a trained instruc- 
tor if this is at all possible. Her Sunday-school 
class should be organized into a Junior Amoma 
or some similar form of organization, and the 
class should have a tennis club or a walking 
club or some other athletic club. At the same 
time, this girl should not get too much exercise. 

2. Many Moods 

A thirteen-year-old girl began to cry one day 



Intermediate Girls 153 

as if her heart would break. "Why, what is 
the matter, daughter?" her mother asked. "Oh, 
I do not know, Mama," she said, "I just feel 
like crying." There was no need for alarm. 
Crying did* not hurt her. It was a normal ex- 
pression of early teenhood. 

A girl in this period will cry one moment and 
giggle the next, and she will not know why she 
does either. We must not take too seriously 
either her crying or her giggling. Both are 
natural and inevitable. 

A bright young woman who had taken a 
course in a training school was the teacher of a 
class of girls in the intermediate department in 
the Sunday-school. One day a group of them 
came up to her prancing and giggling, and one 
of them broke out with, "Tee-hee, aren't we 
cute little devils?" If the teacher had been 
shocked or had scolded, she would have shown 
that she did not understand early adolescence 
and she would have lost her influence over the 
girls. But she simply ignored the outburst, 
and said as she smiled, "Why, hello, Girls, I 
have a story for you, ' ' and she began to talk as 
if the girl had not said anything- at all. 

The girl's statement was rough, of course, 
and girls should not be encouraged in the use 
of such language, but the girl did not really 
mean anything bad. It seems normal for these 



154: Sunday School Experience 

girls to say startling things and to use extrava- 
gant language without meaning very much of 
anything. Their likes and dislikes are strong, 
and their expressions of like and dislike, are 
still stronger. They take to slang as a duck 
does to water. 

3. Love of Praise 

The life of the girl in her early teens is full 
of ups and downs, of doubts and questionings, 
of perplexities and contradictions. Every day 
she is surprised at herself and troubled with 
herself, and, if she is blamed and scolded and 
corrected, she is apt to retire within herself, to 
become morbid and over-sensitive, to feel that 
she is misunderstood and neglected and mis- 
treated. 

She hungers for sympathy and appreciation. 
Sometimes she feels that nobody understands 
her except her girl "chum," and she is not 
sure always that the chum understands her. 
One of these girls said one day, "Papa, we are 
chums, aren't we?" Her father had been tak- 
ing her part when her older sister made fun of 
her. Certainly this girl and her mother should 
be chums. 

A sympathetic, appreciative Sunday-school 
teacher can occupy a large place in the girl's 
life and become a great influence In her devel- 



Intermediate Girls 155 

opment. If the teacher fails to do this, she will 
fail as a teacher, no matter how much she may 
know nor how beautifully she may talk. 

4. Self-Reliance 

A thirteen-year-old girl was refusing to do 
what her older sister wanted her to do. The 
mother said, "Why don't you do what your sis- 
ter wants you to do, Daughter?" "Well, I 
would, Mama," she said, "if she weren't so 
bossy." 

She feels now that she is just as important as 
her older sister, and will not stand "bossing" 
from her. She wants to be a boss herself. She 
even resents being ordered around by her 
mother. She is beginning to come into her own 
as an individual. She is getting to be a woman. 
She must be controlled now by indirect sugges- 
tion, rather than by commands. She must be 
reasoned with and led to do what she ought to 
do and not to do what she ought not to do. 

"Whenever it is possible for her to choose 
for herself, whenever the issue at stake is not 
too great, the wise parent and teacher will al- 
low her to choose, yes, even require her to do 
so, that the power or choice may be developed 
and the mental forces strengthened. And, 
when she has chosen they will help her to carry 
out her choice, that she may see the result and 



156 Sunday School Experience 

judge of its wisdom, thus helping her in the 
struggle to develop both will and judgment." 
(Slattery.) 

The girl must be given her place in the home 
now, and must be taught to keep house. She 
must bear her rightful share of responsibility. 
She must be given an allowance, that she may 
learn the value and the right use of money. She 
should not be treated as a child and be com- 
pelled to beg for every nickel she spends. 

In the Sunday-school, class organization will 
be valuable to her, for she will vote and hold 
office, and will be assigned duties and share in 
the responsibility for the success of the class. 
She will be consulted and advised with. The 
teacher, of course, will be largely directing the 
class indirectly, but she will work with the 
members of the class and not for them. 

The wise teacher of intermediate girls will 
seek to secure a large proportion of self-ex- 
pression on the part of the pupils in the class 
work, through the assigning of home study and 
by enlisting and directing their energies in use- 
ful activities. 

5. Sex Attraction 

' * The development of the sexual instincts un- 
derlies every other change in adolescence. It 
strengthens youth's aspirations, and colors its 



Intermediate Girls 157 

social attitudes. Altruism and self-sacrifice are 
primarily, in fact, parental instincts. ' ' 

This girl begins to feel stirring within her a 
new and wonderful divine principle. She 
should be carefully instructed in the funda- 
mentals of sex knowledge, by her mother and 
teacher, and not be allowed to get false notions 
from ignorant companions. This new knowl- 
edge should come to her gradually and reason- 
ably. 

This young adolescent should not be laughed 
at because she no longer needs to be told to 
wash her hands. Let her feel that it is right 
that she should make herself just as attractive 
as possible. And indirectly her parents and 
teachers can help her to have correct ideas as 
to what constitutes attractiveness. They can 
help her to see that it is good health and neat- 
ness and naturalness and unselfishness that 
make a woman attractive. It will be worth much 
to them if they "can be made to see the at- 
tractiveness of absolute cleanliness, of the 
charm of simple but spotless clothing, of teeth, 
hair, hands and skin that show care." 

She should be made to feel that it is perfectly 
natural and right that she should like the boys, 
and it should be arranged that she shall be with 
them, under proper restrictions, enough to get 
acquainted with them, that she may not have 
any false, foolish notions regarding them. The 



158 Sunday School Experience 

father and the brother can greatly assist the 
girl in her early teens in these respects. A 
girl's father should be her sweetheart. 

6. Definite Awakening 

This is a period of definite awakening, both 
religious and vocational. If the girl has not 
already become a Christian late in the junior 
period, then she should become a Christian and 
come into the church early in the teen period. 
She will need the guiding hand of the Savior 
through the turbulent times of adolescence. 

She should not be forced into the church in 
any mechanical or superficial way. The teach- 
ing and example of the teacher should be such 
that the girl will be led into right convictions 
for herself and to decide for herself sincerely 
to give her life to the Savior and come into the 
church because she loves Him and wants to 
serve Him. Religion cannot be forced. The 
teacher can only teach and watch and pray and 
wait, ready to give tactful direction, to speak a 
seasonable word in private. 

Some time, in a sacred moment of impres- 
sion, the girl will hear the Savior's voice and 
catch a vision of what it means to be a 
Christian. Then, after she becomes a Christian, 
if she is properly taught and surrounded with 
wholesome influences, she will hear the call to 



Intermediate Girls 159 

some definite form of Christian service. She 
may not become a foreign missionary or a 
home missionary, but she will become a mis- 
sionary at home. 

And these calls from God will come through 
the teaching, through her reading, and through 
her associations with the teacher and others. 
Much attention should be given to the girl's 
reading. One book may make or mar her life. 
Proper direction in her reading will enable her 
to form true ideals and noble aspirations and 
holy determinations. If the Sunday-school 
teacher can guide her girls in their choice of 
books, "This is one of the most valuable and 
helpful things a woman can do for a girl." 
"Girls in their teens need biography and enjoy 
it. They need to know fine women who have 
actually lived. The author of the life of Alice 
Freeman Palmer has presented an inspiring 
and helpful gift to the girls of all time, and its 
influence can never be estimated. We need 
more such books." 

Miss Slattery says : "I have yet to find the 
girl from thirteen to sixteen who has been a 
regular attendant at Sunday-school since pri- 
mary age who has no desire to call herself a 
Christian. The splendid devotion to duty, the 
sympathy, the service to the world, the 
marvelous love and compassion, the supreme 
sacrifice of our Lord, makes the strongest pos- 



160 Sunday School Experience 

sible appeal to the spiritual nature of the girl. 
We may confidently expect her to respond, and 
she does. 

"But if the girl has been irregular in at- 
tendance, has lost interest in class or teacher, 
is permitted to enjoy the stimulus of social life 
while too young, comes to church only on 
special occasions, has little or no definite moral 
instruction at home, and does not come into 
close touch with rich spiritual life, she will 
drift through the years of adolescence with her 
spiritual nature undeveloped and expressing 
itself only in vague longings unsatisfied. The 
chances are that such a girl will never have 
anything but a superficial interest either in 
her own development or the vital life of the 
church expressed in its various agencies." 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Discuss the rapid growth of the girl 
from thirteen to sixten years of age. 

2. What should be done with the many 
moods of this girl? Give illustration from ex- 
perience or observation. 

3. Give an illustration of the girl's hunger 
for sympathy and appreciation. 

4. Give an illustration of the girl's dislike 
of being bossed. How may she be helped into 
right self-reliance? 



Intermediate Girls 161 

5. What are some of the practical conclu- 
sions as to this period of definite awakening? 
Illustrate. 

6. What shall be done with the girl when 
she begins to. like the boys? Illustrate. 

What Others Say 

Bead Slattery's "The Girl in Her Teens," 
and also references to Lamoreaux and Weigle 
as given in previous lesson. 



162 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XIX 
THE SENIOR PUPILS 

Young people in later adolescence, from 
seventeen to twenty years of age, are usually 
regarded as belonging to the senior depart- 
ment in the Sunday-school. Both the physical 
and mental life come to practical maturity in 
this period. More account must be taken of the 
individual. Convictions are being formed. It 
is a time of doubts, of reasonings, of the mak- 
ing of life plans, of falling in love. 

1. The Physical Life 

In this period the body is coming to 
maturity. "The physical energy that before 
was needed for growth, can now be turned into 
activity and the development of strength. This 
is the age when athletes develop — great baseball 
and foot ball players, boxers and runners. They 
reach their best in the middle twenties. 

The author was the teacher of an Agoga 
class of one hundred young men from seven- 
teen to twenty-one years of age that had foot 
ball, basket ball and baseball teams and a ten- 
nis club. Match games were played with other 



The Senior Pupils 163 

Sunday-school teams. Many young men were 
attracted to the class through athletics, and the 
teacher got a hold on certain young men 
through his interest in athletics that would 
have been otherwise impossible and also was 
able to exert considerable influence in the com- 
munity in behalf of clean athletics. 

A wide-awake pastor in a small town or- 
ganized a class of young men in his Sunday- 
school, with athletics as a feature, and, 
through an intelligent interest in the physical 
welfare of the young men, he made himself the 
most potent influence in their lives. Inci- 
dentally, he put an end to Sunday baseball in 
the community. 

An Amoma class, in a town of two thousand, 
maintained a tennis club and a gymnasium 
class, and, in the summer, an Amoma camp on 
a creek about fifteen miles distant. Each morn- 
ing, the young women had a Bible study hour, 
and, in the evening, a short vesper service was 
held. The camping not only helped them 
physically, but marked an epoch in their re- 
ligious lives. 

Xot all the members of any class, either 
young men or young women, will be interested 
in some form of athletics probably, but all 
should be taught the sacredness of the human 
body, and should be given practical hints as to 



164 Sunday School Experience 

food and exercise. With young women this is 
especially important. 

Miss Margaret Slattery well says: "In a 
hundred ways, both in teaching and in conver- 
sation with the girls, the Sunday-school teacher 
may show her own respect for the physical side 
of life, the marvel of it all, and the need on the 
part of every woman to obey its unchanging 
laws, from which, if broken, there is no escape. 
In scores of ways she will frankly and natural- 
ly reveal to her girls her sympathy with woman- 
hood everywhere, in every walk of life, and 
especially her respect for mothers, and her love 
for helpless childhood." 

2. Relation of Sexes 

The good teacher will be interested in the 
love affairs of the pupils, and will have many 
oportunities, in the class and in private, to in- 
culcate sensible ideas with regard to love and 
marriage. In the latter part of this period, the 
young man, or the young woman, is likely to 
fall in love and begin to plan for the making 
of a home. 

It will be well occasionally if a sensible 
Christian physician can be induced to talk to 
the class on problems of sex and home-making. 
Sometimes the teacher may put into the hands 
of the pupil a good book dealing with these 



The Senior Pupils 165 

vital questions. Class discussions of these 
questions will be appropriate and helpful from 
time to time. The writer once devoted a les- 
son period, in a class of young men, to the dis- 
cussion of*" The Ideal Wife." The young men 
were tremendously interested. They asked 
questions and made suggestions, and must 
have been greatly helped. 

3. Social JYeeds 

The circumstances of many young people are 
such that their social natures are being starved. 
Through class organization, much may be done 
through the Sunday-school to meet the social 
needs of the young people. 

It has been found to be practical and advis- 
able to plan for a social hour in connection 
with the monthly or bi-monthly business meet- 
ing of the organized class. The business of the 
class is first transacted, and this is followed by 
games and refreshments. This means, of 
course, that there must be some intelligent 
planning by a committee beforehand. Occa- 
sionally, the young men's class may entertain 
the young women, and, at other times, the 
young women may do the entertaining. Good 
suggestions may be had from "Social Plans 
for Young People" by Christian F. Reisner, 
price seventy-five cents net, and from "Bright 



166 Sunday School Experience 

Ideas for Entertaining" by Mrs. Herbert B. 
Linscott, price fifty cents. These books may be 
bad of the denominational publishing house. 
For outdoors, it is possible to arrange for lawn 
games and hay rides and picnics. 

Young people need the society of one 
another. They ought to have a good time to- 
gether, but it must be such a good time as will 
help rather than hinder the development of 
their religious natures. Here is needed much 
sympathy and patience and persistence and in- 
telligence on the part of the teachers of these 
young people. 

The young women, in particular, especially 
in some communities, need this social assist- 
ance. Two sentences from Miss Slattery will 
be in place here. "That there should be some 
way and place in which, surrounded by a 
Christian environment that makes for right- 
eousness, girls in their late teens and just out- 
side, who have no homes, or homes only in 
name, can meet and learn to know young men 
of the right sort is evident to all who have 
even considered the matter." "If the teacher 
once catches a glimpse of the significant fact 
that a girl cannot play wrong and pray right, 
a new realization of the importance of the 
social side will stir her to action and send her 
out to seek help from all who are willing to aid 
in the solution of the world problem of how to 



The Senior Pupils 167 

satisfy the social nature in ways that make for 
character. ' ' 

4. Meeting Doubts 

The senior period has been characterized as 
one of doubts. The dreams of early adoles- 
cence are found to be impossible of fulfillment. 
These young people are now more and more 
facing the grim actualities of life, and finding 
that their ideas with reference to many things 
were wrong. 

Oftentimes this young person finds that his 
early religious conceptions will not stand the 
test. It may be that he cannot reconcile his 
new science with his old religion. His science 
may be poor, and his early religious teaching 
might have been superficial. But, aside from 
all teaching he has received, he is inclined to 
test everything by his active reasoning powers. 
He is impatient of mysteries. He is unifying 
his conceptions and forming his life creed. 

Not only so, but he is apt to neglect the 
means of religious culture. He has more free- 
dom now and does more as he pleases, and it is 
easy to stay away from Sunday-school and 
church services. He is apt now to have his 
"fling." It is the "wild oats" period. It is 
the great crime period. It is the danger period 
in religion. When he enters his twenty-first 



168 Sunday School Experience 

year, he crosses the "danger line." Less than 
one-sixth of all conversions take place after 
twenty, and less than one-half of the one-sixth 
after twenty-five. 

The Sunday-school should wisely and 
courageously meet the religious needs of these 
young people, holding and training them 
through the organized class methods and 
through a teaching that meets their doubts 
sympathetically and presents reasons con- 
vincingly. The teacher cannot afford to come 
before the class unprepared, and, if possible, 
this teacher should be one of broad sympathies 
and more than ordinary training. This is the 
time to teach doctrine, and to hitch doctrine 
on to life. It is the time to get at the funda- 
mentals of religion in a thorough, systematic 
way. 

The senior period is the time for training in 
definite Christian service in various class and 
school activities. The organized class provides 
for definite duties within the class and also for 
activities outside the class. What Miss Slattery 
says of the young women in this connection will 
apply also to the young men. "As the girl ap- 
proaches the later teens the Sunday-school 
class should become more and more a place of 
training for service. It has been my experience 
that after seventeen many girls prefer to work 
in Sunday-school rather than to remain as 



The Senior Pupils 169 

pupils. If the girls express such a desire, or 
show particular willingness to act as substi- 
tutes, to help in the music of the elementary 
departments, or to tell stories to the beginners, 
such a desire should be recognized and an op- 
portunity given a girl to test herself under 
supervision. The Sunday-school should be con- 
stantly preparing assistant superintendents, 
directors of music, secretaries and teachers. 
Material for the teachers' training-class is 
found in classes in the later teens." 

a. Importance of the Individual 

The individuality of the pupil asserts itself 
now as never before. Always there were dif- 
ferences between the pupils in the class, but 
now the differences are more marked and more 
important. Each pupil presents a separate 
problem in himself as never before. 

This is true, not only because the individual 
has grown up, but also because there is more 
difference in the circumstances, the environ- 
ment. Some of them have stopped school and 
are working for a living, and others are still in 
school. Moreover, those who work are not all 
engaged in the same kind of work. 

The teacher must not be content with the 
class work alone, but must know the pupils as 
individuals and help them as individuals. EJ> 



170 Sunday School Experience 

fort must be made to fit the pupil into the or- 
ganized class where he will best fit and where 
he can do the best work. In the assignment of 
home study, account should be taken of the 
pupil's individual tastes and abilities and cir- 
cumstances. The work assigned to a high 
school girl, for instance, would differ from that 
assigned to a working girl. 

Fine results may be obtained by the teacher 
by having the members of the class in the home 
for a meal, one at a time. This makes the pupil 
feel acquainted with the teacher as nothing else 
will, and gives the teacher a chance to talk 
personally with the pupil. 

6. Class Organization 

The author of this book is the author of a 
plan of class organization for young men in the 
Sunday-school, between the ages of seventeen 
and twenty-one, and also of a plan for young 
women of the same age. 

The organization for young men is called 
Agoga, a Greek word meaning training for 
leadership, and the motto is ''Get another 
man." The organization for young women is 
called Amoma, a Greek word meaning blame- 
less, and the motto is "The blameless life." 

The first classes were organized in 1905, and, 
within six years, there were organized more 



The Senior Pupils 171 

than a thousand Agoga and Amoma classes 
with fifty thousand members in the United 
States and Canada and foreign lands. These 
forms of organization will be found of great 
help in carrying out the suggestions of this les- 
son. 

The writer has written an Agoga leaflet en- 
titled "Agoga Life and Work," containing 
constitution and by-laws with suggestions as to 
organization and work, and also an Amoma 
leaflet entitled "Amoma for Young Women." 
Either of these may be obtained by sending a 
two cent stamp to the Agoga Union, 415 Lucas 
Avenue, Saint Louis, Missouri. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why is it important for the teacher of 
senior pupils to be interested in their physical 
welfare? Give an instance of what has been 
done for the physical life in some class you 
know about. 

2. What is the duty of the teacher to the 
seniors in the Sunday-school in view of the 
proper relations of the sexes? Illustrate. 

3. Tell what is being done to meet the 
social needs of the pupils in a class of young 
men or young women. 

4. Why is the senior period one of doubts? 
Why is religious education of special im- 



172 Sunday School Experience 

portance at this time? Give an instance of 
training in this period. 

5. Give an instance of the meeting of the 
individual 's need in the senior period. 

What Others Say 

See the chapter on " Later Adolescence" in 
Weigle's "The Pupil and the Teacher," pages 
56-64. See also Slattery's "The Girl in Her 
Teens." 



LESSON XX 
THE ADVANCED PUPILS 

Pupils twenty-one years of age and over are 
face to face with the great problems of life, and 
the Sunday-school should help them to solve 
these problems. They have attained their 
growth, they have decided on their vocation, 
and they are finding that living is a serious 
business. 

1. Adult Problems 

The teacher should be in sympathy with the 
pupils and know what are their problems. 
With some the problem is the problem of mak- 
ing a living. They work hard, but find it dimS 
cult to make both ends meet. The reason may 
be that they are not in the right work, or that 
they have not had sufficient training, or that 
industrial conditions are against them, or that 
there has been sickness in the family. But 
whatever the cause, they are facing the prob- 
lem, and they need sympathy and help. 

Others are struggling with the problem of 
right living. They want to do right, but it is 
hard sometimes to know what is right. The 



174: Sunday School Experience 

practices of those with whom they are asso- 
ciated seem to them wrong, and the temptation 
is strong to do as others do. Some of them may 
have sown "wild oats" in the past, and they 
are now reaping the crop in weakened bodies 
and minds and in loss of self-confidence or com- 
munity respect. 

Yet others seem to have more than their 
share of sorrows. They meet with loss in busi- 
ness or with disappointment in their undertak- 
ings or suffer the loss of loved ones. Their 
burdens seem heavy, life takes on a dark as- 
pect. Their hearts are sore. Again, some 
may not have recovered from the at- 
tack of doubt in the later teens, and they may 
be just entering a period of doubt. They may 
have heard an address or read a book or listen- 
ed to a classroom lecture that shook the foun- 
dations of their faith, and there must be a 
readjustment and reconstruction. They need 
direction in their reading. 

Then, too, with some, there may be domestic 
infelicities in the home. The world cannot 
seem right when things are wrong in the home. 
When things go wrong in the home, the Sun- 
day-school and the Bible and the church service 
do not seem the same, and sometimes they have 
not the heart to mingle with others in the 
house of God. 



The Advanced Pupils 175 

2. Adult Classes 

What is usually known as the "Bible class" 
is a failure. In the first place, it is not a Bible 
class. Frequently there is not a Bible in it. It 
is only a quarterly class. It is composed of 
both men and women from seventeen to seven- 
ty years of age. It is too much of a mixture, 
and it has no well defined aim. It begins and 
ends in talk, and poor talk at that. 

The advanced pupils should be organized in- 
to a separate advanced department, meeting in 
the main auditorium of the church, if there are 
other rooms for the other departments, and 
there should be at least four classes even in a 
small school — one class for the younger men, 
and one for the older men ; and one class for the 
younger women, and one for the older women. 
In a large school there will be many more class- 
es in this department. 

A class to be organized, and to meet the re- 
quirements of the International Association 
standard, must have the following at least: 
Five officers — a teacher, a president, a vice- 
president, a secretary, and a treasurer; three 
standing committees — membership, social, and 
devotional-missionary, though they may not be 
called by these names; and must be definitely 
connected with the Sunday-school. It is well 



176 Sunday School Experience 

also to have a constitution and by-laws, a class 
name, and a class motto. 

In the organized class, the teaching is not all. 
Not many adults will attend Sunday-school 
simply for the teaching. In the class that is 
organized, the responsibility is shared by the 
members and there are definite duties to per- 
form. The teaching is applied, intelligently 
and systematically. Organization gives per- 
mancy and strength to the class, enlarges and 
holds the membership, provides for mutual 
helpfulness, and ministers to the social life of 
the members. 

The particular form of the organization and 
the character of the work undertaken will de- 
pend on the kind of class it is, the needs and 
possibilities of its members. For the younger 
men, the well known Baraca or Loyal Sons 
forms of organization may be used, and for the 
younger women the Philathea or the Loyal 
Daughters. For the classes of older men, there 
are the Soul Winners, the Twentieth Century, 
the New Movement, the Fraternity classes and 
many others. For the classes of older women, 
there are the Advance, the Daughters of Zion, 
the Bible Searchers, the Century, the Priscillas, 
1he Queen Esther classes and many others. It 
may be well to find a new name for the class if 
possible. 

In addition to the Sunday meeting of the 



The Advanced Pupils 177 

class, there should be meetings for business, for 
sociability, for prayer, for work, etc. There 
should be occasional rally days for the class. 

8. Getting a Start 

There is no one way to go about getting an 
organized class to going in the Sunday-school. 
There may be a class already in the Sunday- 
school that can be turned into an organized 
class. In that case some one should present to 
the class the reasons for organization, and a 
committee on organization should be appointed 
to report later. 

Or there may be a class in the school that 
ought to be divided, and each part made into 
an organized class. A division may be advis- 
able because of too great a difference in the 
ages or the interests of the members of the 
class, or because it is composed of both sexes 
and could do better work if it were two classes. 

Frequently the new class will be composed of 
those who are not now attending Sunday-school 
at all. In that case, the matter of an organized 
class may be presented individually to a few of 
them, and a time may be set for organization, 
or effort may be made to get a large number at 
the beginning. 

In one case where this was undertaken, the 
ladies' aid society furnished, without charge, a 



178 Sunday School Experience 

banquet to the men. All the men of the church 
and congregation were invited to come and 
bring other men. About one hundred were 
present. At the close of the meal, there was an 
enthusiastic address by a Sunday-school spe- 
cialist, setting forth the nature and value of 
class organization, and there were brief talks 
by the pastor and others. Those who felt that 
they would like to go into such organization 
were asked to sign cards. About fifty signed, 
and a temporary organization was effected. 
The organization was made permanent at a 
later meeting. During the first three months 
of the existence of this class, the attendance 
averaged about fifty. 

Sometimes it will be wise not to make the ap- 
peal too general, but to organize the class 
around a teacher and a special course of study, 
inviting only those who are likely to take an 
interest in this course. It may be a course in 
the life of Christ, the life of Paul, one of the 
Epistles, some of the principal Psalms, the 
teachings of Jesus, the problems of today, etc. 

4. Ways of Working 

No one class can do everything, but every 
class should do something. The organized class 
must turn the talk into try, the doctrine into 
doing. It must do the things that it can do and 



The Advanced Pupils 179 

that need to be done. Among the many things 
that have made these organized classes at- 
tractive and effective are the following: (1) 
Separate room with blackboard, maps, library, 
and with pennants, banners and pictures on the 
walls; (2) Class exercises, with a new program 
each Sunday; (3) Short addresses on special 
topics from representative speakers from the 
outside occasionally; (4) A class reading room; 
(5) Class discussions on live topics of the day 
once in awhile; (6) A varied and attractive 
musical service, with short address, for large 
class; (7) Educational classes during the week; 
(8) An employment bureau for the benefit of 
the members of the class; (9) A Sunday even- 
ing tea for members and friends; (10) A care- 
ful system of following up visitors and absen- 
tees; (11) Giving attention to local municipal 
affairs; (12) A class benefit fund for the sick 
and those who are out of work ; (13) Discus- 
sion of practical social problems; (14) Publish- 
ing a weekly bulletin for the church; (15) A 
weekly bulletin for the class, when the class is 
very large; (16) Socials and a class field-day; 
(17) Baseball clubs, hiking clubs, and tennis 
clubs; (18) An annual class banquet, with 
prominent citizens as after-dinner speakers; 
(19) A committee on hand early every Sunday 
to shake hands with the members as they come 
in; (20) Cards of invitation distributed; (21) 



180 Sunday School Experience 

Letters of invitation delivered to the guests at 
the hotels on Sunday morning; (22) Articles 
in the local papers descriptive of special 
events; (23) A class quartet or glee club or 
orchestra ; (24) Sending six members after one 
new member in one week; (25) Real vital 
teaching of the Bible; (26) Conducting a 
lecture course for the benefit of the church and 
congregation; (27) Engaging in specific service 
for the church and the school, as the providing 
of ushers, teachers, etc.; (28) Repairing or 
decorating the church house; (29) Holding re- 
ligious services with invalids, or in asylums, 
jails, etc.; (30) Undertaking other related 
work, as the conduct of boys' clubs, girls' so- 
cieties, mision Sunday-schools, etc. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Describe some problems of an adult you 
have known. 

2. Why is the "Bible class" a failure? If 
you know of one that is not a failure, describe 
it. 

3. What are the requirements for an or- 
ganized adult class ? Why should a class be or- 
ganized ? 

4. What are some names of adult clases? 
Give an original name if you can. 

5. Tell how some adult class was organized. 



The AdTanced Pupils 181 

Give details. 

6. Name five of the most important of thirty- 
things that make organized classes attractive 
and effective. Give an example of one of them. 

What Others Say 

See Pearce's "The Adult Bible Class,' ' 
Wood and Hall's "Adult Bible Classes," and 
Cook 's " Successful Adult Bible Classes." See 
also the chapter on "The Adult Bible Class 
Movement" in Cope's "The Modern Sunday- 
School," pages 161-168, and the chapter on 
"Adult, Young Men's, and Young Women's 
Bible Classes" in Mead's "Modern Methods in 
Sunday School Work," pages 65-80. 



182 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXI 
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The Sunday-school should be organized with 
the idea that it is to be a real school. It should 
be organized as an educational institution, 
with the religious educational needs of the 
pupils the paramount consideration. The ex- 
act form of organization will depend on the 
size and character of the school. Pupils four 
to twelve years of age consitute the elementary 
division, those thirteen to twenty the sec- 
ondary division, and those over twenty the ad- 
vanced division. 

1. Departments and Classes 

The Sunday-school should be divided into 
departments, and classes within the depart- 
ments. 

(1) The beginners' department. Ages about 
four and five. Two grades: First grade be- 
ginners, pupils four years of age ; second grade 
beginners, pupils five years of age. Two 
classes, one in each grade, even in small de- 
partment, if possible. More classes if the de- 
partment is large enough to justify. There 



The Organization of the Sunday School 183 

should be about six pupils in a class. 

(2) The primary department. Ages about 
six to eight, day school grades one to three. 
Three grades: First grade primary, six years 
and grade "one ; second grade primary, seven 
years and grade two; third grade primary, 
eight years and grade three. Three classes, 
one in each grade; or, better, six classes, sep- 
arating the boys from the girls. If four 
classes, then one of younger boys and one of 
younger girls, and one of older boys and one of 
older girls. Only one class if department is 
very small. Should be six to eight in a class. 

(3) The junior department. Ages about nine 
to twelve, day school grades four to seven. 
Four grades: First grade junior, nine years 
and grade four ; second grade junior, ten years 
and grade five; third grade junior, eleven 
years and grade six; fourth grade junior, 
twelve years and grade seven. One, two, three, 
four, eight or more classes, according to the 
size of the department. Boys and girls should 
be separate, with not more than eight in a 
class. 

(4) The intermediate department. Ages about 
thirteen to sixteen, day school grades eight to 
eleven. Four grades : First grade interme- 
diate, thirteen years and grade eight; second 
grade intermediate, fourteen years and first 
year high school; third grade intermediate, 



184 Sunday School Experience 

fifteen years and second year high school; 
fourth grade intermediate, sixteen years and 
third year high school. Sexes separate, with 
eight or more classes if department is large, 
and fewer if small. Fifteen to twenty in a 
class if in separate room, but only eight or ten 
if not. 

(5) The senior department. Ages about sev- 
enteen to twenty. One mixed class, organized, 
in a small department; and, if large, two 
organized classes, one of young men and one 
of young women. Also a teacher-training 
class. 

(6) The advanced department. Ages about 
twenty-one and up. At least four organized 
classes if the department is at all large, two of 
men and two of women. Even if small, one 
class of men and one of women. 

2. Officers and Their Duties 

Every school should have more than one 
superintendent, and no school should have an 
assistant superintendent. There should be 
seven superintendents, one for each of the six 
departments and a general superintendent. It 
is the duty of a departmental superintendent 
to recruit and maintain a competent teaching 
force in his department, to prepare and carry 
through each Sunday a suitable program, and 



The Organization of the Sunday School 185 

to hold a meeting with the teachers of the de- 
partment once a month for conference and 
planning and instruction. It is the duty of the 
general superintendent to see that the other 
superintendents do their duty. He has noth- 
ing to do except to see that others do — and 
that will keep him busy. 

Every superintendent should be a student of 
methods. He should take a teacher-training 
course or courses, should read books and 
periodicals, should attend institutes and con- 
ventions, and should visit other schools. The 
superintendent should be the best person avail- 
able, man or woman. In a small school, it may 
not be possible to have seven superintendents, 
but it is possible to have at least two, one for 
the elementary grades and one for the senior 
and advanced grades. The one who looks 
after the beginners, primary, and junior de- 
partments might be called the elementary super- 
intendent, and the one who looks after the inter- 
mediate, senior, and advanced departments 
might be called the advanced superintendent. If 
all the departments must meet in the one room 
with one program, because of lack of proper 
equipment, then the superintendents can take 
turns from Sunday to Sunday in conducting 
the services. This will insure variety, and will 
secure recognition of the needs of all the de- 
partments. 



186 Sunday School Experience 

In addition to a superintendent, each de- 
partment will need a secretary, a treasurer, a 
pianist or organist, a chorister, a librarian, and 
ushers. If necessary, one person may hold 
more than one office. Even the superintendent 
of a department may be also a teacher in that 
department, if it is not possible to do better. 
In addition to the seven superintendents above 
named, there should be a crade roll superin- 
tendent and a home department superintend- 
ent. 

Besides the general superintendent, there 
should be a general secretary, a general treas- 
urer and a general librarian. The librarian 
will have charge of all supplies for the school. 
Another necessary and important officer is the 
secretary of enrollment, who has charge of the 
enrolling and placing of all pupils. Some 
schools have a secretary of absentees. 

3. Conduct of Business 

Business should never be attended to during 
the session of the school on Sunday. There is 
not time, and the younger members of the 
school know nothing about business. All mat- 
ters of business which require a vote of the 
school should be attended to in the quarterly 
business meeting, held between Sundays. 
Items of business may be discussed in the 



The Organization of the Sunday School 187 

monthly departmental conference, or in the 
general workers' conference in a small school, 
and in the monthly officers' council, composed 
of pastor, superintendents, and general secre- 
taries. The officers' council may make recom- 
mendations at the quarterly business meeting. 

Officers should be elected annually, at the 
quarterly business meeting held late in Sep- 
tember. Those expected to be present and en- 
titled to vote in the quarterly business meeting 
should be the pastor, the superintendents, the 
other officers, the teachers, and two or more 
elected from each class in the intermediate, 
senior, and advanced departments. 

It is maintained by some that the officers of 
the Sunday-school ought to be elected by the 
church as a church in its annual business meet- 
ing, but this is not advisable unless a large 
majority of the members of the church attend 
Sunday-school. A church member who does 
not attend Sunday-school is not competent to 
say who shall be its officers. Those members of 
the church most interested in the Sunday- 
school are the ones to determine its leadership 
and its policies. The Sunday-school may t)e 
the teaching service of the church in theory, 
but it is not so in fact when only one-fourth of 
the membership of the church attend and show 
any interest in its work. It may be said that 
the way to get church members into the Sun- 



188 Sunday School Experience 

day-school is to allow them to vote on Sunday- 
school officers, but that is mere theory without 
a basis of fact. It has been tried over and over 
again, for many years, and it has failed utter- 

iy. 

There should be system in everything that 
pertains to the conduct of the Sunday-school. 
The quarterly business meetings may be held 
late in the months of September, December, 
March and June. The monthly officers' 
council may be held about the middle of the 
month, so every third meeting will come just 
before the quarterly business meeting. If the 
school is small, and there is only the general 
workers' conference each month, this may be 
held so as to come before the quarterly meet- 
ing every three months. The monthly depart- 
mental workers' conference may be held any 
time during the month. 

In some schools, there is a printed constitu- 
tion and by-laws, in which the whole purpose 
and plan of organization is outlined, with 
names and duties of officers and the time and 
character of the various meetings. Even if not 
put in the form of constitution and by-laws, 
the information should at least be printed and 
distributed, that all may understand and ap- 
preciate what the school is attempting to do. 



The Organization of the Sunday School 189 
Wkiting and Discussion 

1. Name the six departments of the Sun- 
day-school, giving the ages of the pupils. 

2. What are the duties of a departmental 
superintendent, and of the general superin- 
tendent ? 

3. What other officers, besides superintend- 
ents, are needed in a well organized Sunday- 
school? 

4. Of whom should the business meeting of 
the Sunday-school be composed and when 
should it be held? 

5. What is meant by a workers' confer- 
ence? By an officers' council? 

What Otheks Say 

See chapters IV, V and VII in Cope's ''The 
Modern Sunday School," pages 28-50 and 61- 
73, chapters IV and V in Smith's "The Sun- 
day School of Today," pages 75-132, chapters 
III, IV and VII in Lawrance ' "How to Con- 
duct a Sunday School," pages 36-53 and 70- 
82. 



190 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXII 
SUNDAY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 

A Sunday-school will not run itself. It must 
be managed. And it ought to be managed bet- 
ter than any day school and better than any 
business. 

1. Promptness and Morement 

In the conduct of the Sunday session of the 
school, it is important to begin on time and 
close on time and to keep something going 
every moment of all the time. It is common 
for Sunday-schools to begin five, ten and fif- 
teen minutes late — but not good Sunday- 
schools. In a good Sunday-school, there is no 
waiting for anybody or anything. 

If necessary, let the school begin without 
the organist or pianist, without the pupils, 
even without the superintendent — but let it be- 
gin right at the time announced. The best way 
to confirm people in the habit of being late is to 
wait on them, and the best start towards a 
poor Sunday-school is a late start. 

Moreover, after the school starts, it should 
keep going. There should be no stops and 



Sunday School Management 191 

pauses and waits. These beget inattention and 
disorder and lack of interest. The superin- 
tendent should be wide-awake, alert, quick in 
movement and speech, and should speak dis- 
tinctly. He should have his program ready, 
and see that everything else is ready before 
the opening of the session. 

2. Order and Reverence 

While there should be life and movement in 
the Sunday-school, at the same time the life 
should be reverent and the movement should 
be orderly. "A Sunday-school that does not 
maintain good order is an immoral institution. 
Regularity, accuracy, promptness, obedience to 
authority, etc., are among the virtues that 
should be the unconscious tuition of the Sun- 
day-school." 

Order and reverence may be secured by a 
well ordered program and by conference and 
understanding among the officers and teachers. 
It cannot be secured with a bell or a yell. 
Sometimes the superintendent and teachers 
cause more disorder and confusion than the 
pupils. During the opening and closing ser- 
vices, the superintendent should not bob 
about doing things and looking after things, 
and this will not be necessary if he knows his 
business. He will stay on the platform and di- 



192 Sunday School Experience 

rect the school. He will get attention by 
quietly indicating what he wants, and he will 
hold it with a good program. His motto will 
be "One thing at a time," and he will not al- 
low the teachers to be interrupted during the 
teaching period by anybody or anything. 

8. The Problem of Music 

Some music sold to Sunday-schools is irrev- 
erent. Cheap song-books are dear at any price. 
Get a book that contains good songs, and a 
good variety — and get plenty of them. 

Get everybody to sing — not yell. Announce 
the number clearly, enlist the co-operation of 
the teachers, sing some old and some new 
songs, have one part of the audience to sing 
and then another part, have a class or a quar- 
tet or an individual to sing a stanza occasion- 
ally and all on the chorus, have a choir or 
chorus to lead, have the help of an orchestra if 
possible. 

See that the songs are sung with the under- 
standing. Sometimes have the school to read 
in unison the words before singing them. 
Again explain the words or tell something 
about the writer. Occasionally the last stanza 
of a song may be sung softly. Have the pupils 
to memorize the words of some of the stand- 
ard songs. 



Sunday School Management 193 

In short, make much of the music. Make it 
count. Never sing while waiting for people to 
come or just to fill in. The tendency is to be- 
little the singing when it always comes first on 
the program. 

4. Selection of Teachers 

The class should not be allowed to choose 
the teacher except in the senior and advanced 
departments, and then always in consultation 
with the superintendent. The teacher should 
be nominated by the superintendent of the de- 
partment and approved in the council of all the 
superintendents of the school. In a small 
school, there may be a committee to assist the 
superintendent in the selection of teachers. 

A teacher should never be made permanent 
at first, but should be chosen as a temporary, 
or supply, teacher, that there may be oppor- 
tunity to learn whether or not the class suits 
the teacher and the teacher the class. A teach- 
er might fail with one class, and then succeed 
admirably with another. The only way to find 
out where the teacher belongs is to "try out" 
that individual at the beginning, before he is 
given a permanent position in the school. 

When a teacher is made permanent, there 
should be a brief inaugural service to dignify 
the office of teacher, and to impress both 



194 Sunday School Experience 

teacher and pupils with the importance of the 
work. The service may consist of a few words 
of welcome by the superintendent, a welcom- 
ing song by the school, and a prayer. 

In selecting teachers, it is well, as a rule, to 
have women as teachers in the beginners' and 
primary departments. In the departments 
above the primary, the boys and men should 
be taught by men, and the girls and women by 
women. Of course, this may not be possible 
always, but it is the ideal, as most Sunday- 
school leaders agree. 

The question of supply teachers is often a 
great problem in the school. The best solution 
of this problem is to throw the responsibility 
for supply teachers upon the teachers them- 
selves. The teacher should be made to realize 
that he has no more moral right to leave the 
class without a teacher than the minister has 
to leave the congregation without a preacher. 

The teacher may have a regular supply, and, 
if not, he can find some one to take the class 
when he finds that he must be away. At least 
he can notify the superintendent that he is go- 
ing to be absent. In any case, the supply 
teacher should be notified in advance, so he 
can make preparation. This is especially im- 
portant where the graded lessons are used. 



Sunday School Management 195 

5. Securing Co-operation 

No one man can run a Sunday-school, and 
make it go. There must be co-operation be- 
tween pupils, teachers, superintendents and 
pastor. 

If the church cannot have a Sunday-school 
pastor, a paid superintendent, then the one 
pastor of the church must be also the pastor of 
the Sunday-school. He should be in it, believe 
in it, talk for it, pray for it, provide for its 
needs, study it, and guide it — he must not un- 
dertake to boss it. He must work through the 
superintendents and teachers, quietly, by in- 
telligent suggestion. 

Nor is the superintendent a boss. He is 
rather a leader, seeking, not obedience, but co- 
operation. He does little himself; he is busy 
getting others to do. And he does not get 
others to do by ordering them around, but by 
enlisting their interest and thought and sym- 
pathies, by getting their co-operation in the 
making of the plans — then they will co-operate 
in carrying out the plans. 

The pastor, superintendent and other officers 
should meet regularly, once a month, in a cabi- 
net, or council, meeting, reporting to one 
another and advising with one another. All 
together can do better thinking than any one 
alone can do, and thus better plans are evolved. 



196 Sunday Scliool Experience 

Moreover, the workers understand one another 
better and can work more intelligently and in 
harmony. If the school is small, the teachers 
also should be present at this council meeting. 
In that case it might be called a workers' 1 con- 
ference, and not a teachers' meeting. The old- 
fashioned "teachers' meeting" is out of date, 
especially where the graded lessons are used. 
The meeting is not so much for the study of the 
lesson for the following Sunday as for confer- 
ence and planning and the study of methods. 
It will be well to have, in this meeting, reports 
from books on Sunday-school methods. 

In addition to the council meeting, there 
should be also, especially in a larger school, a 
monthly meeting of the officers and teachers in 
each department. The superintendent of the 
junior department, for instance, should see 
that the other officers and all the teachers in 
that department meet with him at a stated 
time and place once a month for a discussion 
of the problems in that department and for the 
study of methods and for planning. So with 
each of the other departments. 

Then there is the business meeting of the 
Sunday-school, held once in three months, 
between Sundays, in which all the business is 
transacted. This meeting may be composed of 
the pastor, superintendent, other officers, all 
the teachers, and two or more representatives 



Sunday School Management 197 

from each class in the intermediate, senior, and 
advanced departments. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Give reasons why the Sunday-school 
session should open strictly on time. 

2. Why should there be no stops and pauses 
and waits during the Sunday-school session? 

3. Give an example of order and reverence 
in the Sunday-school, or of the lack of it. 

4. Give five suggestions as to music in the 
Sunday-school. Give one illustration. 

5. Give four suggestions as to the selection 
of teachers. Give one illustration. 

6. Give an illustration of co-operation in a 
Sunday-school, or of the lack of it. 

What Others Say 

See chapters V, VI and XV in Cope's "The 
Modern Sunday School," pages 40-60 and 143- 
150, lessons I, II, V and VII in part II of Mus- 
selman and Tralle's "The Sunday School 
Teacher's School," pages 117-140, 160-168 and 
183-190, chapters VI, IX and X in Lawrance' 
"How to Conduct a Sunday School," pages 63- 
69 and 97-118. 



198 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXIII 
THE SUNDAY PROGRAM 

A Sunday-school must have a program, 
order of service, schedule, if it is to arrive 
somewhere, and much attention should be 
given to this program that it may be a good 
one. 

1. Making the Program 

A good program does not happen — it must 
be made. And it cannot be made on Sunday 
morning. It must be made beforehand. 

The average superintendent has no program 
at all. He comes to Sunday-school without 
any definite idea as to what he is going to do, 
and so he does the same old easy, ineffective 
thing. He has the school to sing awhile, then 
has a prayer, then the lesson is read, then there 
is another song, then the classes take their 
places. 

This superintendent might have had a real 
program if he had worked at it — if he had 
looked over some sample programs which he 
might have easily obtained, if he had visited 
some good schools and taken notes, if he had 



The Sunday Program 199 

spent an hour in honest thought really trying 
to make a program. 

The superintendent who makes a real pro- 
gram, writes it out on a slip of paper and 
keeps it before him during the session of the 
school. Afterwards he makes his superintend- 
ent's record for the day on the back of tne 
program, and files it away for reference. If 
the school be large, he will have the program 
printed and distributed, so everyone present 
will have a copy before him. In any event, he 
can have the program written on the black- 
board, so all can read it. 

In some good schools, it has been found ad- 
visable to have a committee to assist the super- 
intendent in making the programs. Sometimes 
the pastor is one of this committee. 

2. Purpose of the Program 

What is the purpose of a Sunday-school 
program, anyway? Why have a program at 
all? "To attract pupils to the Sunday-school," 
says one. Very good, the program ought to be 
entertaining, but is there not more than that in 
it ? "To furnish an opportunity for worship, ' ' 
says another. True, the program ought to be 
worshipful, but is that all? "To prepare for 
the teaching," says a third. Good, the pro- 
gram ought to prepare for the teaching, but 



200 Sunday School Experience 

there is much more in it than that. 

The main purpose of a program is not enter- 
tainment or worship or preparation. A good 
program does itself actually teach. The chief 
purpose of the program is the education of the 
religious emotions, and this is a very important 
part of the teaching in the Sunday-school. 

Every part of a good program, then, will 
mean something and accomplish something 
definite and valuable. There must be nothing 
in the program that is there simply because it 
has been in other programs, or merely to fill in. 
The practice in some schools of singing, for in- 
stance, while waiting for others to come in, is 
abominable. The beginning of the program is 
just as important as any part of it. The pro- 
gram should mean something and begin to ac- 
complish its purpose at the very beginning. 

A good program, therefore, is not a mere 
ritual, but rather a genuine expression of in- 
telligent thought, made to meet the definite re- 
ligious needs of certain individuals. It fol- 
lows, of course, that a program made to meet 
the needs of children will not meet the needs 
of adults, and vice versa. A program that best 
meets the needs of pupils in the beginners' de- 
partment will be different from the program 
made for any one of the other departments. 
So a program made to meet the needs of pupils 



The Sunday Program 201 

in the primary department will be different 
from that for any other department. So with 
any one of the departments. 

If the Sunday-school lacks equipment, and 
all departments must meet together, then the 
program should be made for one department 
one Sunday, and another department the next 
Sunday, giving each department its share of 
attention. The opening services should not be 
too long. The actual teaching should begin 
not later than twenty minutes after the open- 
ing of the school. 

8. Variety Desirable 

Xo program is a good program if it is used 
every Sunday. In some good schools the same 
program is used for three months, and then a 
different program is used for another three 
months; but it is better to have a gen- 
eral outline to use for three months, and 
to change the part from Sunday to Sun- 
day, introducing some new element each Sun- 
day, suitable to the day or season, or, it may 
be, taking account of some recent catastrophe 
or unusual event. Sometimes a book of pro- 
grams is used, each program different from the 
others, and selection being made from Sunday 
to Sunday. 

Whatever the particular plan followed, the, 



202 Sunday School Experience 

program must be varied from time to time and 
never allowed to become dull and stereotyped. 
The three principal elements in a program are 
song, Scripture and prayer, but these may be 
variously combined. There is neither divine 
authority nor common sense for always put- 
ting song first. In fact, song should not often 
come first. 

In the reading of Scripture, much variety is 
possible, both as to the selection and the meth- 
od of reading. Whatever the selection, it is 
not best to always read responsively. Part of 
the time, only one should do the reading, and 
a different one each time. Sometimes one class 
may do the reading. 

If the selection of Scripture be read respon- 
sively, the response need not be between the 
superintendent and all the rest of the school, 
but between the superintendent and the teach- 
ers one time, the superintendent and one class 
another time, the superintendent and the 
males, or the females, a third time. Again let 
the reading be done by the teacher and a class, 
changing from class to class Sunday by Sun- 
day. At another time, let the reading be by 
two teachers or two pupils or two classes. 

4. Outline of Program 

A suggestive outline of program for the ad- 



The Sunday Program 203 

vanced department is here presented. It is 
given only as a general outline which might be 
used for three months. 

(1) Introductory service. The orchestra, 
which has been playing for ten minutes, stops 
promptly at the time for the opening of the 
school, and the superintendent and officers 
stand. This means that the school has opened. 
The superintendent recites a verse of Scripture 
which is a call to worship, and the officers re- 
spond. Then all stand and say together the 
Lord's Prayer or pray in silence, after which 
they sing the Doxology or Gloria or Holy, 
Holy, Holy. If there is no orchestra, the open- 
ing may be announced by quiet playing on the 
piano or organ. 

(2) Song service. One new song and one 
old one may be sung by the school, with a 
special number between — a solo, or duet, or 
quartet, or song by a class. Sometimes the 
special number will be instrumental. 

(3) Scripture and prayer service. If the 
Uniform lessons are used, the lesson for the 
day will be used only occasionally, other selec- 
tions being read most of the time. The Script- 
ure may be read in one of the ways already 
suggested, or references may be handed out be- 
forehand to be read at this time. Sometimes 
memory verses may be called for. After the 
Scripture, there may be sentence prayers by aj 



204 Sunday School Experience 

cumber, or some one may lead. 

(4) Motto service. Here is the time for re- 
citing the motto or aim of the department or 
school, for the showing of Bibles, and for the 
making of announcements — though these ought 
to be written on the blackboard or printed in 
the school bulletin. Business should not be 
attended to in the Sunday-school, but in the 
workers' conference and quarterly business 
meeting. 

(5) Teaching service. The classes march to 
their places to music. First, attention is given 
to the records and the offering, and then the 
lesson is taught. Time for teaching, at least 
thirty minutes, without any interruptions. 

(6) Closing service. Reassembling to music, 
quiet, reports, song or prayer, and dismissal 
with prayer, or benediction spoken or sung. In 
some schools, the closing service is omitted 
altogether, the time being added to the teach- 
ing period — and it is a good plan. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is necessary in the making of a 
good program? 

2. Name four characteristics of a good 
program. 

3. How may the program be made to meet 
the needs of everybody in the school ? 



The Sunday Program 205 

4. Give an instance of variety, or the lack 
of it, in some program. 

5. Give a sample of a program — one you 
have seen used or your ideal. 

What Others Say 

See chapter X in Cope's "The Modern Sun- 
day School," pages 95-104, chapter V in Law- 
rance' "How to Conduct a Sunday School," 
pages 54-62, chapter VII in Mead's "Modern 
Methods in Sunday School Work," pages 91- 
101, and lesson III in part II in Musselman and 
Tralle's "The Sunday School Teacher's 
School," pages 141-150. Sixteen sample pro- 
grams are given in Hughes' "Opening and 
Closing Exercises," price ten cents, American 
Baptist Publication Society. 



206 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXIV 
TRAILING THE TEACHERS 

If we wait until we need teachers to look for 
them, then we do not get them ; and, if we do 
get them, they are not the ones we want. The 
only way to get good teachers is to find them 
at least a year before they are needed, and 
train them. 

1. Teacher- Training Requirements 

What does a teacher need to know? The 
Bible, yes. But that is not enough — not half 
enough. It is essential to know the Bible, and, 
if the teacher of nineteen or older has been in 
a good Sunday-school all his life as a student, 
he now knows enough of the Bible to form a 
basis for teaching. But usually a teacher has 
not been in a good Sunday-school all his life. 

Many teachers can say as did a bright young 
woman, after having taken special training, a 
successful day school and Sunday-school teach- 
er — ' ■ In all my life I never had a good Sunday- 
school teacher." Therefore, because of poor 
Sunday-school training, the average teacher 
will need to study the Bible itself in the train- 
ing course. 



Training the Teachers 207 

But, after the teacher knows the Bible, he 
may not know how to get others to know it. So 
the teacher must learn how to teach. That 
means that he must study pupils. He must 
study psychology as applied to the teaching oi 
the Bible, educational psychology illustrated 
with biblical and religious materials. This he can 
get only in a course of study prepared 
especially for Sunday-school teachers. Also he 
must know Sunday-school pedagogy, methods of 
teaching the Bible in the Sunday-school. The fun- 
damental principles of psychology and peda- 
gogy are the same everywhere, out the Sunday- 
school teacher needs to study them in their ap- 
plications to the teaching of the Bible in the 
Sunday-school, and this he can do only in a 
Sunday-school teachers' training course. Also 
the teacher needs to know the school, that is, 
where this particular kind of teaching is done. 

The teacher, then, needs to study four 
things, namely, the Bible, the pupil, methods of 
teaching, and the school itself. He might have 
gotten a fair acquaintance with all of these if 
he had been brought up in a real first class 
Sunday-school, but even then he would need to 
study in a systematic way the larger com- 
posite experience provided in a good teacher- 
training course, or courses. 

The teacher, of course, may, and should, 
learn from Sunday-school institutes and con- 



208 Sunday School Experience 

ventions, from visits to other schools, from the 
reading of Sunday-school periodicals, but 
nothing can take the place of definite, syste- 
matic teacher-training. The International 
Sunday School Association, through its com- 
mittees on education, has established standards 
for two courses of study in teacher-training, 
the First Standard Course and the Advanced 
Standard Course. 

The minimum requirements for the First 
Standard Course are : "Fifty lesson periods, of 
which at least twenty lessons shall be devoted 
to the study of the Bible, and at least seven les- 
sons to the Pupil, seven lessons to the Teacher, 
and seven lesson to the Sunday School. The re- 
maining nine lessons may be devoted to any of 
the above required subjects." 

The minimum requirements for the Ad - 
vanced Standard Course are: "One hundred 
lesson periods, with a minimum of forty les- 
sons devoted to the study of the Bible, ten 
lessons to the Pupil, ten lessons to the Teacher, 
ten lessons to the Sunday School, ten lessons to 
Church History, and ten lessons to Missions. The 
remaining ten lessons may be devoted to any 
of the above required subjects." 

2. A Good Text-Book 

Each student should have a good text-book, 



Training the Teachers 209 

to use as guide. This will cost from twenty- 
five to fifty cents. There are many of these 
books from which selection may be made. 

The 1912 report of the Teacher Training 
Commission- of the Religious Education Asso- 
ciation well says: "The market has been 
flooded with cheap so-called teacher-training 
drill books, and condensed manuals of biblical 
knowledge, 'child psychology in a nutshell,' 
vest-pocket editions of religious pedagogy, etc. 
A very great deal of harm has been done to the 
cause of teacher-training by the circulation of 
inferior books. Teachers should be protected 
from this type of literature. Sunday-school 
teachers are not to be trained by any 'short 
cuts' or 'get wise quick' process. 'Much hard 
study' should be the motto of the teacher- 
training class." 

The author of "Sunday School Experience" 
has sought to avoid the mistakes of these 
"drill books," and to furnish an up-to-date 
text-book that will serve as a guide and 
stimulus to individual thinking and wider 
reading. 

3. Library and Museum 

In order to get good results in the use of any 
text-book, the student needs to have access to 
a library and museum. This library should 



210 Sunday School Experience 

contain at least five dollars' worth of the best 
books on child psychology and on methods of 
teaching and management as applied to the 
Sunday-school. ' ' The test of the work of a 
teacher-training class should be teaching effi- 
ciency, rather than Biblical knowledge." Sug- 
gestive lists of books are given in the appendix 
of this volume. 

Money for the starting of such a library may 
be taken out of the Sunday-school treasury, 
and an annual appropriation made, or it may 
be raised by subscription, publicly or private- 
ly. Or, the proceeds of a lecture or concert 
might be devoted to the purpose. There should 
be a librarian to keep track of the books. If 
there is a teacher-training class, the members 
may report at the meeting of the class on chap- 
ters read in the library books. If there is no 
training class for the workers, there can be re- 
ports on chapters in the workers' conference. 

A Sunday- school museum, containing sam- 
ples of graded lessons, with actual work of 
students, and pictures and models and maps, 
will be a valuable aid to the teacher-training 
students. 

" Every teacher . should be encouraged to 
own a library of good books bearing on Sun- 
day-school work. The teacher's minimum 
equipment should be a self-pronouncing 
American Revised Bible, and a standard one- 



Training the Teachers 211 

volume dictionary of the Bible, one good book 
on the child, and one on organization and 
management. To these should be added 
special treatises on the department in which 
the teacher works." 

4. Time of Meeting 

The training class for those who are already- 
working in the Sunday-school should meet 
once a week if possible, between Sundays. 
The best work can be done when a separate 
evening is given to it, but sometimes it is found 
advisable to hold the meeting before or after 
the mid-week prayer-meeting. 

In every Sunday-school there should be a 
training class composed of prospective teach- 
ers, held at the regular Sunday-school hour, 
the training lesson taking the place of any 
other Sunday-school lesson. The writer did 
successful training work with a class of high 
school girls, during the summer vacation 
period, the class meeting twice a week, be- 
tween Sundays, at a morning hour. If it seems 
impossible to meet with a class, one may do the 
work by correspondence. 

5. Problem of a Leader 

Sometimes a class starts, and soon gets dis- 



212 Sunday Scliool Experience 

couraged and quits, because there was no one 
competent to lead. The pastor is not qualified, 
or he is too busy. The superintendent is not 
qualified, and no one of the teachers is quali- 
fied. In fact, there is no one connected with 
the school who has had definite Sunday-school 
training. 

Where such is the case, it may be that some 
day school teacher may be found to lead the 
class. Even though this individual may not 
have had specific Sunday-school training, the 
training for day school teaching will make pos- 
sible better leadership for the class in Sunday- 
school training than could be found in some- 
one else who had not had any training in psy- 
chology and pedagogy, particularly if this day 
school teacher will take a Sunday-school train- 
ing course by correspondence. 

If there seems to be no one at all competent 
to lead the training class, let the Sunday-school 
send one of its brightest members to some 
school for this training, or at least provide a 
correspondence course, and, a year or two 
later, this Sunday-school will have a leader 
for the training class. 

6. Graduations and Diplomas 

The International Sunday School Association 
issues a First Standard diploma and an Ad- 



Training the Teachers 213 

vanced Standard diploma through the various 
auxiliary state, provincial and territorial asso- 
ciations and denominations adopting them, 
provided a satisfactory examination is passed 
and a grade of not less than seventy is attain- 
ed. Diplomas also are issued by the leading 
denominations and by a few educational 
institutions. It is advisable for the student to 
get a diploma, but it is not necessary. The 
main thing is to do the work and get the bene- 
fit. But, in any case, there ought to be a 
graduation service in the Sunday-school, 
recognizing the training work done by the stu- 
dent. Such a service magnifies and dignifies 
Sunday-school teaching and will help to get 
others to take a training course. 

This service need not be elaborate. It may 
consist of a statement of the work done, a 
hearty word of appreciation, a prayer, and the 
conferring of diplomas if these are given. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What does the Sunday-school teacher 
need to study? 

2. Why should a teacher-training student 
use a text-book? 

3. What is the value of a library and 
museum, and how may it be obtained? 

4. What books have you read on Sunday- 



214 Sunday School Experience 

school work? Which ones do you own? 

5. Discuss the time of meeting for teacher- 
training. When does your class meet? 

6. How may a competent leader be found 
for the training class? 

7. What is the value of a graduation ser- 
vice? What per cent of the teachers in your 
Sunday-school have completed at least a First 
Standard course? 

What Others Say 

See chapter XVIII in Cope's "The Modern 
Sunday School," pages 169-183, chapter X in 
Smith's "The Sunday School of Today," pages 
202-210, and chapter VIII in Lawrance' "How 
to Conduct a Sunday School," pages 83-96. 



LESSON XXV 
BUILDING IP THE SCHOOL 

The school will not build up itself — someone 
must work at it. And it cannot be done in a 
hurry, by claptrap methods, but only by intel- 
ligent, persistent work. A Sunday-school 
ought to have an average attendance at least 
equal to the membership of the church. 

1. Good School Necessary 

The best way to get and maintain a good at- 
tendance is to have a good school. If we ask 
people to come to a Sunday-school, we are mor- 
ally bound to give them something worth 
while. Therefore, the Sunday-school must be 
so organized and conducted that it will meet 
the religious educational needs of all classes of 
individuals. 

It must have graded lessons, taught by 
trained teachers; it must have a properly con- 
structed building, with adequate equipment; 
it must have attractive programs, preferably 
departmental; it must make much of special 
occasions ; it must have class socials, depart- 
ment socials and school socials; it must make 



216 Sunday School Experience 

much of the individual and emphasize the per- 
sonal touch of teacher with pupil. 

2. Reception of Hew Members 

New members must be received into the 
school, and not merely allowed to drift in and 
find places for themselves. Every new pupil 
should be formally enrolled and intelligently 
placed where he belongs by an enrolling secre- 
tary and assistants. 

There should be enrollment cards with the 
printed words department, class, name, ad- 
dress, telephone, age and birthday, public 
school grade, member of what church, brought 
by, parent or guardian, old or new member, 
date, with blanks to be filled in. As soon as 
the card is filled out, the enrollment secretary 
assigns the pupil to the proper department and 
class, and an assistant takes the new pupil to 
the class to which assigned, introducing the 
pupil to the teacher. The enrollment secretary 
keeps the cards on file and has a complete up- 
to-date roll of the whole school with the loca- 
tions of all the pupils. 

The enrollment secretary should have a 
room, or at least a convenient place, for the 
work, and no pupil should be allowed to be en- 
rolled in a class until enrolled and placed by 
this secretary. Furthermore, no pupil should 



Building up the School 217 

be allowed to change from class to class with- 
out the consent of the enrollment secretary. 
All changes should be made by this secretary. 
This is absolutely essential if the school be a 
graded school. The enrollment secretary 
should be a day school teacher, who knows 
something about grading, if possible. 

3. Going- After Absentees 

It is not enough to get new pupils ; the school 
must hold them. But that is the very thing 
most Sunday-schools do not do. The leakage 
in the average school is simply appalling — or 
would be if the workers would keep a record 
of their losses for a year and bring themselves 
face to face with the facts in the case. 

Who is responsible for the leakage in the 
Sunday-school? In the last analysis, it is the 
teacher. If a pupil is not present, the teacher 
should know why — and at once. The teacher 
should write to absentees, or telephone them, 
or call on them. If the class is large, there 
may be a committee to look after the absen- 
tees, but, in no case, should the teacher feel al- 
together relieved of responsibility in the mat- 
ter. The teacher might plead lack of time, but 
nevertheless should take the time. 

In some schools there is a secretary of ab- 
sentees who keeps track of the absentees and 



218 Sunday School Experience 

works to bring them back — and also sees that 
the teachers do not neglect their duty in this 
regard. One school got a good man for this 
work who had not been attending Sunday- 
school at all. 

4. Membership Campaigns 

Too many Sunday-schools take it for granted 
that they have already about all the members 
to which they are entitled, whereas a house-to- 
house canvass would reveal the fact that there 
are members all around them who are outside 
the Sunday-school and who ought to be in their 
Sunday-school. This house-to-house canvass 
may be undertaken by the one school alone or 
in connection with other schools. There should 
be a canvass every year or two. 

In some schools, there are membership con- 
tests — between the two halves of the school, 
between two classes in the school, between the 
school and another school in the community, or 
between the school and another school at a dis- 
tance. The contest plan has its dangers, but 
where properly conducted, and vigorously 
followed up, it has brought many permanent 
pupils into the school. In conducting a con- 
test, great care should be exercised to see that 
the rules and conditions are clearly under- 
stood, that the counts are accurate and fair, 



Building up the School 219 

and that no one is counted who belongs to an- 
other school. It is well also to take account of 
attendance and punctuality of all on each side 
as well as of new pupils. 

After all has been said, however, the best 
campaign is the every Sunday campaign, 
where the school, the department, the class, 
work for new pupils all the time. Every class 
has a membership committee. Sometimes, in 
the large organized class, names of possible 
members are written on the blackboard, and 
one, two or six members of the class are sent 
after one individual in one week. As possible 
members become actual members, the names 
are checked off on the blackboard. 

5. Recognitions and Honors 

Every Sunday-school should have an ade- 
quate system of records, taking account of 
more than mere attendance, and those who 
make a good record are promoted from grade 
to grade and graduated from department to de- 
partment with honor. These certificates and 
diplomas, costing only a few cents each, will 
do far more to get and hold pupils than money 
and candy and pictures and books. 

Some schools use the Robert Raikes' Diplo- 
ma, which provides for twenty years' attend- 
ance. The pupil who has been present every 



220 Sunday School Experience 

Sunday for a year, gets the diploma, and a 
seal for each year thereafter. Honor rolls for 
perfect attendance are a help. An honor roll 
for those who bring new pupils has been used 
with success. An honor roll for those who 
make a perfect all-around record, in attend- 
ance, punctuality, preparation, etc., is excel- 
lent. The Cross and Crown and star systems 
of recognizing attendance are of doubtful 
value, and they get to be quite expensive. It 
is well to recognize a class with a perfect rec- 
ord as a "star class," and the best star class 
is the "banner class." 

There are schools that find it helpful to have 
a quarterly reception of new pupils, holding a 
little welcoming service consisting of the form- 
ing of the "love circle," made by the joining 
of hands of superintendent and teachers, of 
the speaking of words of greeting, the reciting 
of the departmental or school motto, and of the 
singing of a reception song. 

6. Taking the School into the Home 

The Sunday-school may be taken into the 
home and may bring many from the home into 
the Sunday-school through the cradle roll and 
the home department. The cradle roll brings 
the babies into the school later, and also at- 
tracts other members of the family. 



Building up the School 221 

The home department is a boon to many 
shut-ins and Sunday workers by tying them on 
to the school and giving them many of its ben- 
ifits though they cannot attend its sessions. 
Also it helps those who think they cannot or 
who will not attend Sunday-school, and many 
will come after they have gotten interested 
through the home department. 

The denominational publishing house will 
furnish samples of home department supplies 
on application. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is the best way to get and hold 
pupils? Why? 

2. What has been said as to the enrollment 
of new pupils? Give an instance of a bad re- 
sult of lack of proper enrolling. 

3. Tell of what is being done in your Sun- 
day-school with regard to absentees. 

4. Tell how some school you have known 
increased its membership. 

5. What do you consider the best system of 
recognitions and honors in the Sunday-school? 

6. Give an illustration from experience of 
the value of a home department. 

What Others Say 
See chapters on "Methods of Securing and 



222 Sunday School Experience 

Holding Members" and "The Honours and 
Rewards" in Lawrance' "How to Conduct a 
Sunday School," pages 119-128 and 161-166, 
the chapter on "Recruiting and Retaining Pu- 
pils" in Cope's "The Modern Sunday School," 
pages 74-85, and chapters IX, X and XI in 
Mead's "Modern Methods in Sunday School 
Work," pages 127-182. See also Stebbins' 
"The Home Department of Today." 



LESSON XXVI 

RECORDS AND FINANCES 

The matter of records and finances is far 
more important than the amount and kind of 
attention given them in the average Sunday- 
school would indicate. If the Sunday-school is 
to be an educational institution, it must be also 
a business concern, and it cannot be that unless 
proper attention is given to records and fi- 
nances. 

1. A Good System of Records 

There are many systems of Sunday-school 
records on the market, samples of which may 
be had from the Sunday-school supply houses. 
The card systems are coming to be preferred 
to the book systems, as being more modern 
and business-like. 

Some of these systems take account of at- 
tendance alone, others also of whether or not 
the pupil is present on time, and still others 
also of lesson preparation, the contribution of 
money, the bringing of pupils, church attend- 
ance, etc. The essentials of a good Sunday- 
school record would seem to be that it take 



224 Sunday School Experience 

account of attendance, punctuality, prepara- 
tion and contribution. A school may have its 
own records printed if large, and, if small, 
may make them. Any good system of records 
will cost money and work, but they are worth 
all they cost. 

2. The Work of the Secretary 

Finding out how many pupils are present is 
one of the least of the things a Sunday-school 
secretary has to do. The secretary should see 
that the school has a good system of records, 
and that it works the system. He should see to 
it that the records are accurate and complete 
every Sunday. 

The secretary and his assistants should see 
that the record books, or cards, reach the 
classes promptly at the proper time, and that 
they are collected without disturbing the 
classes. All the secretary's work should be 
done quietly and expeditiously. He should 
have a room in which to work, or at least he 
can work behind a screen, so as not to interfere 
with the work of the school. 

In presenting the report to the school, the 
secretary should change his method from time 
to time. Sometimes the report may be read, 
and, if so, it should be read distinctly and rap- 
idly. Usually it will be better to have the re- 



Records and Finances 225 

port on a blackboard, where all can see it, and 
to call attention to certain items occasionally. 
Once in awhile, he can have the reports made 
by the classes themselves. Always, the report 
should be brief. At times, it should tell how 
many are not present, and how many were 
late, etc., giving the negative side as well as 
the positive. From time to time, the report 
should compare the record of the day with the 
record of the Sunday before and of the year 
before, effort being made to keep the school 
running a race with itself. All the records 
should be carefully preserved, and fuller rec- 
ords should be kept than are presented to the 
school. 

3. The Work of the Treasurer 

The treasurer must be quick and accurate at 
figures, and not too young. He may be a man 
of ability who could not teach a class or super- 
intend the school, but he knows how to handle 
money and to get people to give money. 

He should understand that his business is 
not merely to count and pay out money. He is 
to do that, and he should do that carefully and 
accurately, and should keep clear accounts, al- 
ways taking receipts. It is his chief business 
to develop the spirit of benevolence. 

Right giving in the Sunday-school means 



226 Sunday School Experience 

large gifts to the church later. Not only so, 
but the giving itself is of great value to the 
pupil. It is a means of expressing interest and 
appreciation, it is a means of grace and 
growth, it is educational. Pupils who are not 
trained to give, and to give in the right way, 
in the Sunday-school, will become religious 
paupers. Pupils should be taught to give be- 
cause of Him who has given all for them, for 
the sake of the good they may do, and that 
they may enter into the joys of the fellowship 
of giving. 

The treasurer should see that the pupils 
know what they are giving to and why they 
they are giving. His reports should show just 
where the money goes, and his accounts should 
be audited from time to time and report made 
to the school by the auditing committee. His 
work should be an example of good financial 
methods. He should discuss finances with the 
teachers in the workers' conference, and 
should work mainly through the teachers in 
training the pupils in giving. 

4. Increasing- ithe Gifts 

Pupils will not give largely when they give 
simply to pay for lesson helps, and they do not 
get the largest good from their giving. Part 
of the giving must be to the church, to local 



Records and Finances 227 

missions, and to home and foreign missions. 
It is a good plan for the church to pay all the 
expenses of the Sunday-school. 

Let the school not have very many "special 
offerings,*" and especially let it beware of the 
unaccredited travelling brother who wants to 
present his cause. Also let not the school be 
asked for enlarged offerings for the Christmas 
entertainment or for the school picnic. Money 
for such purposes should be raised by private 
subscription or taken out of the school funds. 
Giving for a good time for ourselves is not real 
giving, and it has little educational value. 

Giving should be emphasized and magnified 
in the class, but always in the right way. Nev- 
er in a way to embarrass the individual ; there- 
fore, the emphasis should not be placed upon 
the amount, but upon giving proportionately 
and in the right spirit. One cent is as much 
for one pupil as a quarter is for another. Rec- 
ord should not be made of the amount given 
by the individual pupil, but of the fact of his 
giving ; so the pupil who gives one cent, should 
have the same credit as the one who gives a 
quarter. 

So with classes. The emphasis should not be 
placed upon the amount but upon the fact that 
every member of the class gave something. 
The class with the largest offering should not 
be the banner class. It is unfair and hurtful. 



228 Sunday School Experience 

' ' It is not a question of dollars ; it is a question 
of cultivating a spirit and habit of giving." 

At the same time, amounts must be consid- 
ered. The dollars are needed and the pupils 
should be made to realize that they are needed. 
Under no circumstances, should we talk about 
"pennies" in connection with the Sunday- 
school, not even in the beginners' department. 
Let us use the word "money." Even little 
children can give five cents a Sunday, many of 
them; and, some of them, ten cents. Certainly 
if the child started from home with five cents 
for the Sunday-school, and spent four cents of 
it on the way for candy, the teacher ought to 
know about it and the parents ought to know 
about it — and something ought to be done 
about it. Some older pupils ought to give 
twenty-five or fifty cents a Sunday, and even 
a dollar in some cases. 

Pupils should be taught to give in fact, of 
their own money. Sunday-school workers 
should co-operate with parents, so that the 
pupils may give from an allowance or from 
money actually earned. We ought to "break 
up the almost universal habit of the children 
acting as proxies for the parents' penny gifts." 

Pupils also should be trained to give rever- 
ently. Sometimes there should be prayer in 
connection with the giving. Certainly the 
joking about giving should be left out. Giving 



Records and Finances 229 

must be taken seriously, as an act of worship. 
The Bible teaching on giving should be pre- 
sented from time to time, in connection with 
the lessons. "The careful record of giving, 
the intelligence as to the objects of giving and 
the practice of giving their own, all contribute 
toward reverence in the act." 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Of what should a good system of records 
take account? "Why? 

2. What are the duties of a secretary? 
What is the most important suggestion made 
as to the report of the secretary? 

3. Give an illustration from observation of 
good, or bad, secretarial work. 

4. What are the duties of the treasurer, and 
why is right giving in the Sunday-school im- 
portant ? 

5. What are the two most important sug- 
gestions made in this lesson with regard to in- 
creasing the gifts in the Sunday-school? 

6. Give an illustration from observation of 
bad financial methods in the Sunday-school. 
Give an illustration of a good method, or a sug- 
gestion of your own. 

What Others Say 
See the chapter on "Giving and Finances" 



230 Sunday School Experience 

in Cope's "The Modern Sunday School," pages 
151-160, and the chapter on "The Sunday 
School Giving," in Lawrance' "How to Con- 
duct a Sunday School," pages 133-141. 



LESSON XXVII 
SPECIAL DAYS AND OCCASIONS 

Special days and occasions should not be al- 
lowed to obscure the regular work of the Sun- 
day-school, but at the same time there is an 
important place for them if rightly managed. 

1. Promotion Day 

On Promotion Day, the pupils are advanced 
from grade to grade and from department to 
department. Those who are promoted from 
grade to grade in a department receive certifi- 
cates of promotion, if they have made a satis- 
factory record, and, if not, they may be ad- 
vanced without honor. Those who are gradu- 
ated from department to department receive 
diplomas, duly signed and sealed, if they have 
made a satisfactory record, and, if not, they 
may be advanced without honor. Those who 
did not make a satisfactory record may be held 
back a year, and then advanced. 

Where each department has its own room 
and separate services, then the promotion ex- 
ercises should take place in the department, 
and, for the graduation exercises and the con- 



232 Sunday School Experience 

ferring of diplomas, all the departments may- 
come together in the large auditorium. On 
Promotion Day all the departments and classes 
should take their places as usual for the mark- 
ing of records, taking of the collection and the 
teaching, and the promotion and graduation 
exercises should take place during the latter 
part of the session. 

In the small school, where the departments 
have not separate places of meeting, all the 
classes should be assembled in the one large 
room, after the teaching, for the promotions 
and graduations. The special exercises should 
be brief, consisting of a few words of explana- 
tion and appreciation, a brief prayer and the 
conferring of the honors. When the certifi- 
cates or diplomas are presented, the class and 
teacher should be standing together, and the 
class should then pass to the new position — 
and the new teacher. Every pupil should change 
teachers every year — certainly every three or 
four years, when he goes from department to 
department. Each teacher loses the old class 
and gets a new class from the grade below. 
Pupils will not object seriously to the change 
of teachers when it is the plan of the school, 
and all are treated alike. 

Promotion Day should be the last Sunday in 
September, especially if the graded lessons are 



Special Days and Occasions 233 

used, as the graded lesson year begins with the 
first of October. Some, however, prefer the 
last Sunday in June as the time. If the last 
Sunday in September is the time agreed on, 
then it may "be the same as Rally Day. 

2. Bally Day 

It is well in the fall, preferably the last Sun- 
day in September, to make special effort to 
rally all the Sunday-school forces, at the regu- 
lar Sunday-school hour. 

The platform may have on it a shock of corn 
or wheat, or a row of pumpkins, and strings of 
corn or heads of wheat or autumn leaves or 
sprays of golden rod may be used as decora- 
tions. There should be a committee, or com- 
mittees, to make everything attractive. 

Vigorous, intelligent effort should be made 
to get out all who are enrolled in the school 
and also a number of new pupils. Printed in- 
vitation cards should be given to the members 
of the school on the Sunday before, to be used 
in getting new pupils. Postcard invitations 
should be mailed to all who are enrolled in the 
school. 

Sometimes an imitation typewritten letter, 
signed by the superintendent and pastor, is 
sent to all the parents, impressing them with 
their responsibility for the religious education 



234: Sunday School Experience 

of their children and inviting them to the Rally- 
Day services. And, in addition to this general 
letter to parents, and the postcard invitation to 
all the pupils, each teacher should write a per- 
sonal letter to all the pupils in the class or 
should visit them. It is the business of the 
superintendent to remind the teachers of their 
duty in this respect. 

Plans should be made for a systematic fol- 
lowing-up of the pupils who may not be pres- 
ent on Rally Day and for the finding of new 
pupils. The promotion and gradation services 
may be held on Rally Day. 

3. Children's Day 

The second Sunday in June is usually known 
as Children's Day. A special program is pro- 
vided and an offering is taken for Sunday- 
school or Bible work. The services may be 
held at the regular Sunday-school hour or may 
take the place of one of the preaching services. 

The pupils who take part should be selected 
from the primary and junior departments, and 
they should take part in classes or groups as 
far as possible. In addition to the exercises by 
the children, there should be an interesting 
talk by the pastor or superintendent, or some- 
one else, showing what the offering is for. The 



Special Days and Occasions 235 

offering should be made as large as possible, 
and it should be sent in promptly. 

Instead of exercises by pupils, a story of 
Sunday-school missions and Bible distribution 
might be told with the aid of the stereopticon. 
If it is not practicable to have a stereopticon, 
then whoever makes the talk might tell the 
story of a mission planted with Children's Day 
offerings, or the story of the gift of a Bible 
and the good that was accomplished. 

In any event, the program needs to be enter- 
taining and instructive, and it should be well 
advertised beforehand. 

4. Field Day 

Field Day, or Picnic Day, usually comes in 
the spring or summer, between Sundays. It 
advertises the school, promotes acquaintance 
and furnishes wholesome recreation. Tickets 
should be given without charge to all the mem- 
bers of the school, and they may be sold to 
others. 

Effort should be made to help everybody to 
have a good time. There may be tests of vari- 
ous sorts between classes and individuals. 
There may be running, sack races, three-legged 
races, baseball, tennis, croquet, quoits or horse- 
shoes, pole and rope climbing, broom and flag 
drills. Accidents should be guarded against. 



236 Sunday School Experience 

and care should be taken that some do not ex- 
ercise too much, especially if the weather be 
warm. It will be well also to have a literary 
and religious program, consisting of music, 
speeches, poems, Scripture and prayer. 

Everything should be carefully planned. 
There should be a committee and sub-commit- 
tees. There should be a printed program for 
the day, with the name of the school, the com- 
mittees, etc. The day should be well adver- 
tised beforehand. 

5. Christmas Day 

The Christmas entertainment is held some- 
times at the regular Sunday-school hour, but 
usually at a separate hour. There should be 
careful planning, with preparatory discussion 
in the workers' conference. Effort should be 
made to have the program different each year. 
It may be a cantata one time, and stereopticon 
views in the life of Christ another time. Occa- 
sionally it will consist of exercises by members 
of the school, selected from the primary and 
junior departments, with special music by old- 
er pupils. It may be an entertainment by 
classes, each class furnishing a part of the en- 
tertainment. Sometimes it will be a sacred 
concert, under the direction of orchestra or 
choir. 



Special Days and Occasions 237 

Some believe in Santa Claus and some do not. 
The tendency is to leave Santa Claus out of the 
Sunday-school entertainment. There may be 
a tree or not, as seems best. Some schools 
give candy or fruit or flowers or books to the 
pupils, but there is a growing sentiment for a 
"giving Christmas," the pupils giving money 
or food or clothing for poor families or the or- 
phans' home or other institution. 

6. Other Occasions 

Decision Day has been considered in the les- 
son on "Sunday School Evangelism." Some 
schools observe New Year's Day, refreshments 
being served and each pupil receiving a card 
or calendar. When Thanksgiving Day is ob- 
served, vegetables and fruits are brought for 
the poor. Other days sometimes observed are 
Flag Day, Fourth of July, Easter, Parents' 
Day, Old Folks' Day, and Mothers' Day. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why is Promotion Day important? Il- 
lustrate if you can. 

2. Give suggestions as to how to make a 
success of Rally Day. 

3. Give an illustration of the value of Rally 
Day. 



238 Sunday School Experience 

4. Discuss some suggestion as to Children's 
Day. 

5. Describe Field Day as you have seen it 
observed. 

6. Describe Christmas Day as you have seen 
it observed in the Sunday-school. 

What Others Say 

See lesson VIII in part II of Musselman and 
Tralle's "The Sunday School Teacher's 
School," pages 191-202, chapter IX in Smith's 
"The Sunday School of Today," pages 196- 
201, chapter XIV in Lawrance' "How to Con- 
duct a Sunday School," pages 142-160, and 
chapter XIII in Mead's "Modern Methods in 
Sunday School Work," pages 194-207. 



LESSON XXVIII 
MISSIONS IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The best- place to teach missions is in the 
Sunday-school. Here is where the missionary 
problem must be solved. Some suggestions are 
offered. 

1. Teaching from the Platform 

One way to teach missions in the Sunday- 
school is to present information from the plat- 
form. This may be done in the department or 
in the school as a whole, by the superintendent, 
pastor, or someone else who is qualified to do it 
well. Missionary facts may be presented in 
the form of interesting stories or map drills. 
Curios, charts, pictures and stereopticon will 
help to make missionary facts interesting, 
clear and impressive. An excellent book pre- 
pared especially for use in teaching missions 
from the platform is Trull's "Five Missionary 
Minutes," price fifty cents, for sale by the de- 
nominational publishing house. 

Sometimes the teaching of missions from the 
platform is done through the pupils themselves, 
a brief, interesting missionary program being 



240 Sunday School Experience 

prepared, with speaking, songs and drills. Ex- 
cellent suggestions for this purpose are found 
in "The Missionary Speaker/' "Missionary Pro- 
grams, Number One," and "Missionary Pro- 
grams, Number Two, ' ' published by the Young 
People's Missionary Movement and obtainable 
from the denominational publishing house. 
Occasionally it may be possible to have present 
a missionary. 

2. Supplemental Missionary Lessons 

Missions may be taught in the Sunday- 
school, in addition to the regular lessons, in 
graded supplemental lessons, provided by the 
denominational publishing house, which will 
send samples on application. For the begin- 
ners, there are missionary pictures and stories ; 
for the primaries, there are stories of the chil- 
dren of mission fields; for the juniors, there 
are stories of missionary heroes and heroines; 
for the intermediates, there are stories of the 
nations and their needs; and for the seniors, 
there are missionary history and plans. 

In some schools, a brief course in missions is 
substituted for the regular lessons for a few 
weeks or a few months. In the organized adult 
class, there is used as a text some such book as 
"The Uplift of China," "The Redemption of 
the City," or "Mormonism : the Islam of Amer- 



Missions in the Sunday School 241 

ica." In the intermediate class, some such 
text book as "Uganda's White Man of Work" 
or "Best Things in America' ' is used. 

8. In Connection with Regular Lessons 

The Bible contains the principles of missions, 
and, when the lesson has in it a missionary 
teaching, it should be illustrated and applied. 
There are many lessons which are missionary. 

Frequently, also, teaching that is not di- 
rectly missionary may be made effective by the 
use of missionary illustrations — a story, a fact, 
some figures, an item of news, a picture, a cu- 
rio. Any number of these missionary illustra- 
tions may be found in the missionary maga- 
zines, the denominational journals and the 
Sunday-school lesson helps, if only the teacher 
is looking for them. 

In some junior departments, the pupils have 
special missionary scrap-books, for missionary 
pictures and biographies. In a number of good 
schools, where stereoscopes are used, there are 
missionary stereographs, especially in the jun- 
ior and intermediate departments. 

Sometimes the regular Sunday-school pro- 
gram, or order of service for the day, may be 
missionary. In that case the order might be 
somewhat as follows: (1) Doxology, invoca- 
tion, missionary hymn, and Lord's Prayer; (2) 



242 Sunday School Experience 

A map drill showing the location of the mis- 
sions of the denomination, or a letter from a 
missionary, or recent items from the field, or 
brief incident from a recent missionary book; 
(3) Two brief prayers for missions; (4) An- 
nouncements and showing of Bilbes; (5) Mark- 
ing of records, offering, and class instruction 
for thirty-five minutes; (6) Closing service, 
with a missionary hymn and prayer for mis- 
sions. 

4. Doing Mission Work 

Missionary teaching should be made as prac- 
tical as possible. This may be done in various 
ways. There should be gifts to missions. All 
the pupils should contribute to missions. There 
should be a mission day in the Sunday-school 
at least once a month, when all the offerings 
go to missions. 

The school, the department or the class may 
support a missionary or a helper, may prepare 
and send missionary boxes, may support or 
conduct a mission Sunday-school, or may en- 
gage in some other kind of mission work. The 
bringing in of new pupils into the Sunday- 
school is one kind of mission work. Some of 
the pupils ought to give themselves definitely 
to foreign or home mission service. 

It is important that the pupils be led in giv- 



Missions in the Sunday School 243 

ing and doing for missions, not only because of 
the good they are doing immediately, but for 
the sake of their religious education, for the 
best good of the pupils themselves. When mis- 
sionary interest is aroused it should be ex- 
pressed in some direct and tangible way. 

o. Missionary Library and Museum 

Every Sunday-school should have a mission- 
ary museum containing pictures, curios, native 
costumes, maps, and models of houses, imple- 
ments, weapons, etc. These may be obtained, 
at a nominal cost, from the various missionary 
boards. 

A good up-to-date missionary library also is 
a necessity if the best work is to be done in the 
Sunday-school. The money may be taken from 
the treasury, or may be raised by personal so- 
licitation or at a book social. These books 
should be shown and described from time to 
time, in a way to awaken interest and to cause 
the pupils to want to read them. In buying 
the books, they should be chosen with reference 
to the needs of the pupils in the various grades 
of the school, provision being made for prima- 
ry, junior, intermediate, senior and advanced 
pupils ; and care must be exercised that the 
right books get into the hands of the right pu- 
pils. Sometimes the teacher may require pu- 



244 Sunday School Experience 

pils to read certain chapters in the books and 
to report in the class. 

There should be eight general classes of mis- 
sionary books in the library, as follows: (1) 
Books of methods, such as Trull 's ' ' Missionary 
Methods for Sunday School Workers" and 
Brain's "Fuel for Missionary Fires;" (2) 
Books of reference, such as Dwight 's ' ' The En- 
cyclopedia of Missions" and "The Blue Book 
of Foreign Missions;" (3) Books of history, 
such as Leonard's "A Hundred Years of Mis- 
sions" and Barnes' "Two Thousand Years of 
Missions before Carey;" (4) Books of travel 
and adventure, such as Stanley's "In Darkest 
Africa" and Landor's "In the Forbidden 
Land;" (5) Books of description, such as 
Gale's "Korean Sketches" and Smith's "Chi- 
nese Characteristics;" (6) Books of biography, 
such as Lambert's "The Romance of Mission- 
ary Heroism" and Gracey's "Eminent Mis- 
sionary Women;" (7) Books of fiction, such as 
Eyster's "The Chinese Quaker" and Mason's 
"The Little Green God;" (8) Selected libra- 
ries, such as those published by The Students' 
Volunteer Movement and by The Young Peo- 
ple 's Missionary Movement and sold by the de- 
nominational publishing houses. 

In buying books to meet the needs of the va- 
rious grades, selection will need to be made as 
follows: (1) For primaries, such books as Bat- 



Missions in the Sunday School 245 

ty's "The Great Big World or a Missionary 
Walk in the Zoo;" (2) For juniors, such books 
as Crowell's "Coming Americans" and Grin- 
nell's "Jack Among the Indians;" (3) For in- 
termediates,* such books as Banks' "Heroes of 
the South Seas" and Guernsey's "Citizens of 
Tomorrow;" (4) For seniors, such books as 
Bacon's "Japanese Girls and Women" and 
Riis' "How the Other Half Lives." 

Writing and Discussion 

1. How may missions be taught from the 
platform in the Sunday-school? Illustrate. 

2. What is meant by supplemental mission- 
ary lessons? Can you give an illustration of 
their use ? 

3. How can missions be taught in connec- 
tion with the regular Sunday-school lessons? 
Tell how it was done in one school. 

4. Give an illustration from experience, 
your own or another's, of how missionary in- 
terest may be expressed in connection with the 
Sunday-school. 

5. Describe a Sunday-school missionary 
museum, preferably one you have seen. 

6. Name eight general classes of books suit- 
able for a missionary library in the Sunday- 
school. 

7. Name a missionary book suitable for pri- 



246 Sunday School Experience 

mary pupils, one for juniors, one for interme- 
diates, and one for seniors. 

What Otheks Sat 

See Trull's "Missionary Methods for Sunday 
School Workers" and Hixson's "Missions in 
the Sunday School/ ' 



LESSON XXIX 
THE BUILDING AND ITS EQUIPMENT 

If the Sunday-school is to be a real school, it 
must have proper building and equipment. A 
workman, no matter how good, cannot do his 
best work without good tools. 

1. Type of Building Needed 

The one large room is not at all adapted to 
Sunday-school work, no matter how well it 
may be suited to the preaching, though it may 
have cost much money and may be very beau- 
tiful. Several classes of all grades in one room 
make a confusion in the midst of which no one 
can do good teaching with any class. More- 
over, the one room makes impossible good de- 
partmental work, with services adapted to the 
needs of the pupils in that department. 

Nor does a "Sunday-school room" meet the 
demands of a modern Sunday-school. One 
room, for all the school, built on to the main 
auditorium, is a waste of money and a grue- 
some monument of what might have been. It 
is worse than nothing because it stands as a 
barrier to something better. 



248 Sunday School Experience 

"What, then, is needed? Is it "the Akron 
plan?" Not at all. The Akron plan provides 
for one large auditorium, with smaller rooms 
around it, in a semicircle, each opening into 
the large room and separated only by thin mov- 
able partitions, sliding or folding doors, or 
curtains. This plan does not provide for prop- 
er departmental organization, and the smaller 
rooms are not properly shaped and cannot be 
suitably furnished and made cozy and com- 
fortable and home-like. The plan spoils both 
the rooms and the auditorium. 

The needs of a modern graded Sunday-school 
can be met only by a type of building that pro- 
vides separate permanent class rooms, used only 
for the teaching, and a separate assembly room for 
each department. It will not be altogether easy 
to get such a building, but surely it can be 
done. 

2. Getting the Eight Building 

If the church already has a wrong building, 
and cannot afford to tear down and build anew, 
then a two story addition, made into class 
rooms, might be built. In that case, all the 
school could meet in the old auditorium for a 
brief opening service, and then go to the new 
rooms for the teaching. There need not be any 
closing service necessarily. 



The Building and its Equipment 249 

One of the new rooms could be used for the 
beginners, and they could go at once to their 
room and have their own opening service there. 
So with the primary pupils, and possibly also 
the juniors: If the church really is not able to 
build this addition, a dwelling house nearby 
might be rented for the teaching, at least for a 
part of the classes. 

In erecting a new church building, whether 
expensive or inexpensive, the house might be 
constructed in the form of a cross, with a base- 
ment story and a main story, the foot of the 
cross facing the street, or the corner if the lot 
be a corner lot. The front end of the building, 
that is the base of the cross, main floor, would 
be used for the preaching and for the assem- 
bling of the advanced department of the Sun- 
day-school, the basement floor under this being 
used for the senior department. The back end, 
that is the top of the cross, would consist of 
rooms for teaching, the main floor rooms being 
used for the advanced department classes and 
the lower rooms for the senior department 
classes. One of the wings or arms of the cross 
would be used for the intermediate depart- 
ment, the class rooms above and the assembly 
room below ; and the other wing for the junior, 
primary and beginners' departments, the jun- 
iors being below, with classes separated by 
screens, and the upper floor being divided into 



250 Sunday School Experience 

two rooms, the larger for the primaries, with 
screens separating the classes, and the smaller 
for the beginners, with classes separated by 
screens. 

Where there is but one room and it seems 
impossible to add anything, then all the school 
may meet in the one room for the opening ser- 
vice, and the classes separated by curtains or 
screens for the teaching. 

8. Heating, Ventilation and Light 

There should be plenty of light. Of course, 
the light should not be glaring; it should be 
somewhat softened. Heating shouldbeby steam 
if practicable. Hot air is not satisfactory. 
The use of stoves should be avoided if possible. 
The addition of grates in some of the rooms 
gives a cheerful effect. 

If possible the building should be equipped 
with a modern system of ventilation that 
brings in the fresh air and takes out the bad 
ar; but, if the room have no system of ventila- 
tion, then at least some intelligent attention 
should be given to the matter of ventilation. 

Here is a good ventilation rule: Always, 
after a service, all the windows and doors 
should be thrown wide open for a time, that 
the pure air may come in and drive out the bad 
air; and the same thing should be done before 



The Building and its Equipment 251 

the next service, even in the coldest weather, 
for fresh air is more quickly heated than stale 
air. 

In cold weather, care should be taken not to 
get the room too warm at the start as the as- 
sembling of the pupils will make it several de- 
grees warmer. If the room gets very warm 
and close during the service, all the doors and 
windows may be thrown wide open while the 
pupils stand and sing, and may then be closed 
again. In the summer time, the house should 
be screened, and electric fans should be in- 
stalled. 

4. The Equipment That is Needed 

A few brief suggestions are given regarding 
the equipment that is needed in the house of 
the modern graded Sunday-school. 

(1) Carpets. Carpets add to the attractive- 
ness of the room and lessen the noise. Cork 
carpets are good in upstairs rooms where the 
sounds need to be deadened. 

(2) Seats. For teaching, the pupils should 
be seated in chairs, not fastened to the floor or 
together, so the class can sit in a semicircle. 
If the chairs have rubber tips on the legs the 
noise will be greatly lessened. For the begin- 
ners, there should be little red chairs. The 
primary pupils also need small chairs. In the 



252 Sunday School Experience 

senior and advanced departments, the pupils 
may have regulation students' desk, or arm, 
chairs. 

(3) Tables. The pupils should be gathered 
around a table, in the beginners ', primary, 
junior and intermediate departments. For the 
younger pupils, the tables should be very low. 
Tables are necessary for handwork. Sometimes 
the top of the table is a blackboard. There 
should be also a table for the superintendent 
and one for the secretary. 

(4) Blackboards. There should be a black- 
board for the superintendent, one for the sec- 
retary, and one for each teacher. These may 
be of wood or slate or cloth or pulp. They 
may be bought, at various prices, from the sup- 
ply houses, or they may be made at home. 
Sometimes small lap blackboards are used. 

(5) Musical Instruments. There should be 
a piano first of all, or an organ less preferably, 
and as many accordant instruments as can be 
secured. Also there should be song-books, and 
plenty of them, for all the departments except 
the beginners and primary. 

(6) Maps. In the beginners' and primary 
departments, a sand tray can be used for mak- 
ing maps. In the junior and intermediate de- 
partments, there is need for outline, relief, 
political and geographical maps. For older 
pupils, historical maps are valuable. 



The Building and its Equipment 253 

(7) Pictures. Always there should be a 
supply of pictures, illustrative of Bible teach- 
ings. There should be stereoscopes and 
stereographs, and sometimes a stereopticon is 
used. Also "there should be a few good pictures 
on the walls. 

(8) Museum. The museum may contain 
models, handwork materials, samples of hand- 
work, pictures of the schools, curios, etc. 

(9) Library. A good Sunday-school library 
attracts and holds pupils, and is an aid in 
teaching. The library should contain books 
for the workers as well as for the pupils, and 
should be graded, well managed, and made at- 
tractive. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Why is one large room not sufficient for 
the Sunday-school? 

2. What is the type of building needed ? Do 
you believe such a building possible? 

3. What can be done where the present 
building is inadequate ? Tell what was done in 
some one instance. 

4. What is the suggestion given in the les- 
son as to the ideal church building? Describe 
the best building for Sunday-school purposes 
you have seen. 

5. What do you consider the most import- 



254: Sunday School Experience 

ant suggestion in this lesson as to heating, ven- 
tilation and light? 

6. Discuss five of the most important sug- 
gestions in this lesson as to the equipment. 

7. Give some suggestion of your own as to 
building and its equipment if you can. 

What Others Say 

See Lawrance' " Housing the Sunday 
School," chapters on "The Housing of the 
Church School" and "The Detailed Equipment 
of an Up-to-date Sunday School Building" in 
Smith's "The Sunday School of Today," pages 
33-74, and chapters on "Building and Equip- 
ment" and "The Library Problem" in Cope's 
"The Modern Sunday School," pages 86-94 



LESSON XXX 
HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Most interesting and instructive is the his- 
tory of the Sunday-school. A brief outline is 
here presented. 

1. In Bible Times 

The term Sunday-school does not occur in 
the Bible, any more than does "annual revival 
meeting," "church clerk" and "missionary 
society," but the principles of Sunday-school 
work are abundantly set forth in both the Tes- 
taments. Teaching is emphasized over and 
over gain in the Bible, in precept and example. 

Moses was a teacher — Deuteronomy 4:14, 
"And Jehovah commanded me at that time to 
teach you statutes and ordinances" — and 
taught the Jews to be teachers — Deut. 11:19, 
"And ye shall teach them your children." 

Samuel was a teacher — First Samuel 12:23, 
"I will instruct you in the good and the right 
way." When Jehoshaphat ascended the 
throne of Judah, the people had wandered off 
into heathenism, and he adopted teaching as 
the best method of effecting a cure. He sent 
out teachers, the names of sixteen of whom are 



256 Sunday School Experience 

given — Second Chronicles 17:7-9, "And they 
taught in Judah, having the book of the law of 
Jehovah with them; and they went about 
throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught 
among the people.' ' 

Ezra was a teacher — Ezra 7:10, "For Ezra 
had set his heart to seek the law, and to do it, 
and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances." 
In the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, we see 
Ezra at the head of a Sunday-school, a Sunday- 
school workers' conference and a Sunday- 
school institute. 

Jesus was the Great Teacher. He was more 
a teacher than a preacher. He was brought up 
in the home Bible school and in the synagogue 
Bible school. He went about teaching and 
preaching and healing, with emphasis always 
on the teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is 
really the Teaching on the Hill. It is not a 
sermon at all, but an outline of some of the 
characteristic teaching of Jesus. Long after it 
was written, it was named by a preacher who 
thought the sermon was the main thing, but 
the writer, Matthew, says that Jesus was teach- 
ing—Matthew 5:2, "Taught them." 

In the program left us in the last words of 
Jesus the emphasis is on teaching — Matthew 
28:18-20, "Make disciples," "baptizing them," 
"teaching them." The apostles under- 
stood the program, and followed it — 



History of the Sunday School 257 

Acts 5:42, "And every day, in the temple 
and at home, they ceased not to teach 
and to bring good tidings of Jesus Christ." 
(See American Revised, margin.) Acts 15:35, 
"Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, teach- 
ing and bringing the good tidings of the Word 
of the Lord." (American Revised, note.) The 
New Testament churches had a class of work- 
ers known as teachers — Acts 13:1, "Prophets 
and teachers," and Ephesians 4:11, "And he 
gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; 
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and 
teachers." 

2. From the Apostles to Luther 

"The Apostolic Church made the school the 
connecting link between herself and the 
world." "Not by great sermonizers swaying 
the minds of adult unbelievers, but by individ- 
ual teachers reaching and teaching children 
and the childlike individuality, were the 
triumphs of early Christianity mainly won." 
1 ' In less than three hundred years from the 
death of Saint John the whole population of 
the Roman Empire, which then represented the 
civilized world, was nominally Christianized" 
— by the child-reaching and child-teaching 
methods of Christ and the apostles. The 
catechetical schools flourished, and the best 



258 Sunday School Experience 

people of the time devoted themselves to 
teaching. ' ' Evangelism by means of the teach- 
er was the method of the early centuries/ ' 

Then a change came. The priest and the 
preaching displaced the teacher and the teach- 
ing. "By a gradual process of degeneration 
the priest came to be the more prominent fac- 
tor in the churches. Gradually the ritual and 
the confessional took the place of the teacher 
with the open Word of God. ' ' Dead formalism 
took the place of the formation of character by 
teaching. The long dark ages were ushered in, 
and for more than a thousand years, Christi- 
anity seemed to have well nigh disappeared 
from the earth. There were only a few of the 
faithful here and there, hidden away in friend- 
ly caves and forest depths and mountain fast- 
nesses — and the spark of vital Christianity 
was only kept from flickering out altogether 
by teaching. 

Always there were some who had been 
taught and who taught. Some of these suffer- 
ed death for their faith, but others would be 
left to continue to teach. One of these was 
Peter Waldo, and the result of his teaching was 
the Waldenses, who, for centuries, in the moun- 
tains of Northern Italy, have withstood the 
attacks of Rome and are still a prosperous and 
happy people. 



History of the Sunday School 259 

3. The Great Reformers 

The great reformers of the sixteenth century- 
were more teachers than preachers. Martin 
Luther established schools for the teaching of 
the Bible all over Germany, and prepared for 
them catechisms, or systems of lessons. John 
Calvin also established schools and wrote a 
catechism which was used extensively in 
Switzerland, France, Scotland, Hungary, the 
Netherlands and England. The Reformation 
gained power and became a permanent reality 
by virtue of the fact that the reformers follow- 
ed the teaching method of Christ and the 
apostles. And the Catholic Church saved her- 
self from utter rout only by copying the meth- 
od of the reformers and shifting the emphasis 
to teaching — and this method she has never let 
go. 

The impetus given to the teaching of the 
Bible in the sixteenth century was manifest in 
much good Sunday-school work during the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, not only 
in Germany, but in England and America. 

4. Fox and Raikes 

The modern organized Sunday-school move- 
ment began with Robert Raikes and William 
Fox in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. In 1780, in Gloucester, England, Raikes 
organized a reform school with four paid 



260 Sunday School Experience 

teachers and gave free instruction to poor chil- 
dren on Sundays in reading, writing, arithme- 
tic and spelling. Raikes gave wide publicity 
to his plan through the press. He is largely 
credited with being the chief influence in the 
beginning of the organized Sunday-school 
movement. 

About the same time, "William Fox was con- 
ducting a school in London, with the Bible as 
the text-book, meeting on weekdays. "In May, 
1785, at the Baptist Monthly Meeting, held at 
the King's Head Tavern, England, Fox intro- 
duced a resolution asking that the meeting call 
upon the various denominations of England to 
unite in the organization of a society for the 
promotion of Bible study among the children 
of England. The call was issued. The society 
was organized September 7, 1785." 

5. Progress by Organization 

The London Sunday School Union was or- 
ganized in 1803, for the purpose of promoting 
the voluntary idea in Sunday-school work, an 
idea advocated by William Brodie Gurney, 
who had offered free his services as a teacher 
in the Sunday-school and had called on others 
to volunteer for the work. 

The first general organization in America 
was The First Day or Sunday School Society of 



History of the Sunday School 261 

Philadelphia, constituted January 11, 1791. 
The American Sunday School Union was 
organized May 25, 1824. The American Bible 
Society was organized in 1825. The National 
Sunday School Convention was organized in 
1832. This became The International Sunday 
School Convention in 1875, and, in 1905, was 
changed to The International Sunday School 
Association. 

The International Sunday School Associa- 
tion is composed of various individuals of 
various denominations, and it aims to help all 
co-operating schools into greater efficiency. It 
seeks to be a clearing-house of the best 
methods in the Sunday-school world. 

6. The Educational Deyelopment 

The emphasis in Sunday-school work in re- 
cent years has been on the educational side, on 
making the Sunday-school a real school, on 
adopting and adapting the best in modern edu- 
cational science and art, on the necessity of 
trained teachers. The work of the Religious 
Education Association, organized in 1903, has 
greatly helped in emphasizing the fact that the 
Sunday-school needs to become more truly 
educational. 



262 Sunday School Experience 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Give an argument from the Old Testa- 
ment for the Sunday-school. 

2. What can be said of Jesus as a teacher? 
What of the apostles? 

3. How may the success of Christianity 
during the first three centuries be accounted 
for? 

4. Describe the change that occurred when 
the teaching method of Jesus and the apostles 
was abandoned. 

5. What can be said of the reformers of the 
sixteenth century as teachers? What of teach- 
ing in the Catholic Church? 

6. Tell of the work of Fox and Raikes, 
and its connection with modern Sunday-school 
work. 

7. Why co-operate with the International 
Sunday School Association? 

What Others Say 

See chapters II and III in Cope's "The 
Modern Sunday School," pages 12-27, Cope's 
"The Evolution of the Sunday School,' ' 
Brown's "Sunday School Movements in 
America" and Trumbull's "Yale Lectures on 
the Sunday School." 



LESSON XXXI 
THE BIBLE DESCRIBED 

The Bible is a remarkable book, and it has 
had a remarkable history. No one can afford 
to be ignorant of the Bible, and certainly no 
one can be truly educated without studying the 
Bible. 

1. The Bible Is a Book 

Take up a Bible, and you hold in your hand 
a book. The word bible is a form of the Greek 
word UUos, which means look. The Bible is the 
book of books. It is the greatest of all books. 
It is the greatest in its contents, in its composi- 
tion, and in its influence. It is greater than 
other ''sacred books," as the Vedas, the Zend- 
Avesta, and the Koran. 

2. A Book of Sixty-six Books 

The Bible is a library of sixty-six books, 
made up of many smaller books and tracts. As 
a help in remembering that there are thirty- 
nine books in the Old Testament and twenty- 
seven in the New Testament, one may take 



264 Sunday School Experience 

three, the number of letters in the word Old, 
and put after it nine, the number of letters in 
the word Testament, for the number of books 
in the Old Testament ; then multiply three, the 
number of letters in the word New, by nine, the 
number of letters in the word Testament, for 
the number of books in the New Testament. 

8. The Bible Meaning of Testament 

The Greek word which meant covenant be- 
came testamentum in the Latin, and thus be- 
came testament in English. The Old Testament 
is so called because it embodies the scriptures 
produced under the old, or Jewish, covenant, 
and the New Testament is so called because it 
was produced under the new, or Christian, cov- 
enant. See II Corinthians 3 :6, 14. 

4. Bible Names for the Bible 

The Bible designates parts of itself as 
"the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17), 
"the Scriptures" (Matthew 21:42), "the 
Oracles of God" (Romans 3:2), "the Book of 
the Law" (Joshua 1:8), "the Law of Moses 
and the Prophets, and the Psalms" (Luke 24:- 
44), and by other titles. 



The Bible Described 265 

5. As a Book of Literature 

The Bible covers a wide range of literary- 
production, both in prose and in poetry — his- 
tory, biography, orations, sermons, proverbs, 
odes, lyrics, elegiacs, stories, etc. The English 
Bible has profoundly influenced English liter- 
ature. 

6. As a Book of Religion 

The aim of the Bible is religious. The forms 
of literature in the Bible are not an end in 
themselves. Its history is, in the last analysis, 
a history of the struggle of a race to realize 
God and to be rid of sin and its consequences. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is the meaning of the word Bible? 
In what three respects is the Bible the greatest 
of books? 

2. What is the meaning of the word testa- 
ment? What are some of the titles which the 
Bible gives itself? 

3. What kinds of literature are found in the 
Bible ? Give your estimate of this literature. 

4. Describe the Bible as a book of religion. 
What does the Bible mean to you? 



566 Sunday School Experience 

What Others Say 

In connection with this and the nineteen les- 
sons which follow, reference may be had to the 
following books: Moulton, "A Short Introduc- 
tion to the Literature of the Bible ;" Hazard- 
Fowler, " Books of the Bible with Relation to 
Their Place in History ;" Smyth, "How We 
Got Our Bible;" Price, "Ancestry of Our En- 
glish Bible;" Hulley, "Studies in the Book of 
Psalms;" Smith, "The Historical Geography 
of the Holy Land;" Burton, "A Short Intro- 
duction to the Gospels;" Stevens and Burton, 
"A Harmony of the Gospels;" Gilbert, "The 
Student's Life of Jesus;" Conley, "The Early 
Church;" Gilbert, "The Student's Life of 
Paul;" Waring, "Christianity and Its Bi- 
ble;" and a good Bible dictionary. 



LESSON XXXII 

BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT GROUPED 

The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament 
appear in our Bible in the order in which they 
were given in the Latin Vulgate version. Jose- 
phus and the Alexandrian writers made of our 
thirty-nine books only twenty-two, the number 
of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, Ruth being 
classed with Judges, First and Second Samuel 
as one, First and Second Kings as one, First 
and Second Chronicles as one, Ezra with Nehe- 
miah, Lamentations with Jeremiah, and the 
twelve minor prophets as one. 

1. Fire Books of Law 

They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 
bers, and Deuteronomy. These five books, tak- 
en together, have been called the Pentateuch, a 
Greek word which means five-fold. Sometimes 
Joshua is classed with these five, and the six 
are called the Hexateuch, six-fold. The Penta- 
teuch came to be called by the Jews "the Law" 



$68 Sunday School Experience * 

2. Twelve Books of History 

They are Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II 
Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, 1 Chronicles, II 
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The 
Jews classed the first seven of these with "the 
Prophets,'' and the other five with "the Writ- 
ings. ' ' The five books of the Pentateuch may- 
be classed as history, making seventeen his- 
torical books altogether. 

8* Fire Books of Poetry 

They are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, 
and Song of Solomon. Sometimes these five 
books are classed as devotional, from the fact 
that the largest book in the group, the book of 
Psalms, is mainly devotional in character. The 
Jews classed with these five also Lamentations, 
Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles, 
and called them "the Writings" or "the 
Psalms." Sometimes now Lamentations is 
classed with the five. "No single term proper- 
ly includes these six books, as Proverbs and 
Ecclesiastes belong rather to the 'Wisdom' lit- 
erature of the Bible, Job is dramatic, the 
Psalms and Lamentations are lyric, Solomon's 
Song is idyllic." 



Books of the Old Testament Grouped 269 

4. Fire Books of Major Prophets 

They are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 
Ezekiel, Daniel. Major means greater. It 
is not meant that these five books are greater 
in importance than the Minor prophets, but 
greater in bulk. The five books are longer than 
the twelve books. These books might be 
classed as historical, for they contain history; 
and some of them might be classed as poetical, 
for they contain poetry. 

5. Twelve Books of Minor Prophets 

They are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, 
Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, 
Zechariah and Malachi. Minor means lesser, 
in length. These books are not arranged in 
chronological order. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Drill yourself until you can turn readily 
to anyone of the thirty-nine books. 

2. Learn the names of the books by groups. 
Learn to name them forwards and then back- 
wards. 

3. Learn to bound the various books, nam- 
ing the division in which each is found, and the 
books immediately before and after it. 



270 Sunday School Experience 

4. In learning the twelve books of history, 
divide them into groups of three, six, and 
three. 

5. In learning the minor prophets, divide 
them into four groups of three. 

6. Name in order, from memory, the books 
of the Old Testament. 



LESSON XXXIII 
BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT GROUPED 

The twenty-seven books of the New Testa- 
ment may be divided logically into five histori- 
cal books, twenty-one doctrinal books, and one 
prophetical book; but the more usual division 
is five-fold. 

1. Four Books of Biography 

They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 
These are four lives of Christ, usually called 
"the Gospels." The first three are called "the 
Synoptic Gospels," or "the Synoptics," mean- 
ing that the three writers "view together" the 
life of Christ, as shown by their general simi- 
larity, while "the Fourth Gospel" was written 
later, to supplement the first three. 

2. One Book of History 

The book of Acts is the history of the early 
church, written probably by Luke, the author 
of the third Gospel. 



272 Sunday School Experience 

3. Thirteen Pauline Epistles 

They are Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinth- 
ians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colos- 
sians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Tim- 
othy, II Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Some 
would put Hebrews with these, but probably it 
was not written by Paul. These letters are not 
arranged in their chronological order. Some 
were written to persons, and some to churches. 

4. Eight General Epistles 

They are Hebrews, James, I Peter, II Peter, 
I John, II John, III John, and Jude. They are 
called General, or Catholic, Epistles because all 
but II and III John were written for Christians 
at large, and not to individuals or to individual 
churches. 

5. One Book of Prophecy 

It is Revelation. The Revelation is some- 
times called "the Apocalypse,'' a Greek word 
meaning "unveiling" or "revelation." The 
book is closely related to Daniel, the apocalyp- 
tic book of the Old Testament. 

Writing and Discussion 
1. Drill yourself in naming the books of the 



Books of the New Testament Grouped 273 

New Testament, in "bounding" them, and in 
spelling, pronunciation, and in contractions. 

2. In memorizing the names of the thirteen 
Pauline Epistles, take them in three groups of 
three and one of four. 

3. In memorizing the eight General Epis- 
tles, divide them into two groups of four. 

4. Name the Synoptic Gospels, and tell why 
they are so called. 

5. Name in order, from memory, the books 
of the New Testament. 



274 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXXIV 
SOURCES OF OUB BIBLE 

About thirty-six writers were from ten to 
sixteen hundred years in the writing of the 
sixty-six books of the Bible, the first being 
written from nine to fifteen hundred years B. 
C, and the last about one hundred years A. D. 

1. The Original Languages 

Nearly all the Old Testament books were 
written in Hebrew, and nearly all the New Tes- 
tament books were written in Greek, that is 
Hellenistic Greek, a Judaeo-Greek language. 

2. Method of Writing 

The Old Testament books were written with 
ink upon parchment, or prepared rolls of the 
skins of animals. The writing was a kind of 
hand-printing, with the vowels left out. The 
New Testament books were written upon rolls 
of papyrus, upon parchment, and upon vellum. 
The ink was soot or lampblack mixed with 
wine-lees or gum. The pen was a reed or a 
metal stylus. 



Sources of Our Bible 275 

3. The Oldest Copies 

All the original writings have been lost, but 
very ancient copies of copies have come down 
to us, and are now preserved in the great mu- 
seums of the world. Some of the original writ- 
ings were worn out by use, and others were de- 
stroyed in times of persecution. The original 
writings were carefully copied by trained copy- 
ists, or scribes, and then the copies were copied. 

4. The Canon of Scripture 

The word canon means rule, or measure, and 
by the Canon of Scripture is meant the list of 
books which are considered as properly belong- 
ing in the Bible, as distinguished from the 
apocryphal, or spurious, books. The Old Testa- 
ment canon was established before the time of 
Christ, and the New Testament canon was grad- 
ually fixed by the agreement of Christian read- 
ers before the end of the fourth century. 

5. Manuscripts, Versions and Writings 

The copies of the books of the Bible which 
were made in the original languages are called 
manuscripts, and those made in other lan- 
guages are called versions. The oldest extant 
manuscripts of the Old Testament are of the 



276 Sunday School Experience 

ninth century A. D., and the oldest extant man- 
uscripts of the New Testament were written in 
the fourth century A. D. The oldest and most 
valuable manuscripts are the Vatican, the Sin- 
aitic, and the Alexandrian. There are about 
two thousand Bible manuscripts in existence. 
Some of the earliest and most valuable ver- 
sions, or translations, are the old Latin version, 
the Latin Vulgate, the Peshito, the Ethiopic, 
and the Gothic. Among the valuable remains 
of the early Christian writings are the Epistle 
of Barnabas, Epistle of Clement, Sheperd of 
Hermas; also writings of Ignatius, Polycarp, 
and Justin Martyr. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. How long did it take to write the books 
of the Bible ? How many writers ? 

2. Describe the method of writing. What 
have become of the original writings of the Bi- 
ble? 

3. Define and discuss the Canon of Scrip- 
ture, manuscripts, and versions. 

4. Name three manuscripts, five versions, 
and three early Christian writings. 



LESSON XXXV 

ENGLISH VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE 

If a copy of an early English Bible were put 
into the hands of the average reader of the En- 
glish Bible of today, he would not be able to 
read it at all. 

1. The Earliest Versions 

The first Anglo-Saxon Bible was a poetical 
paraphrase by Caedmon, a poor Saxon cow- 
herd, made about 680 A. D. Other early trans- 
lators were the Venerable Bede and King Al- 
fred. John Wyclif, "the Morning Star of the 
Reformation/' was the first translator of the 
Bible into English, 1382. His translation was 
made from the Latin Vulgate. It was well 
done, and was a boon to the people, but it 
stirred the church leaders to persecution. 

2. Tyndale and Corerdale 

William Tyndale, who died in 1536, was the 
translator of the first Bible printed in English. 
His translation was independent of Wyclif 's, 
and became the father of all later versions. He 



278 Sunday School Experience 

was persecuted and exiled, and then strangled 
and burned. Miles Coverdale, one of Tyndale's 
friends and also an exile, published in 1535 the 
first complete English Bible. Matthew's Bible, 
a compound of Tyndale's and Coverdale 's, was 
the first English Bible with notes and chapter 
headings. 

8. Geneyan Bible and Douai Tersion 

The Genevan Bible was published in 1560 by 
a company of exiled scholars led by William 
Whittingham. This was the first English Bible 
with verse divisions and with different type to 
indicate words not found in the original. This 
version was based on Tyndale. English Roman 
Catholics, who had fled to Douai in Flanders, 
published the New Testament in English in 
1582, and the Old Testament in 1610, translat- 
ing from the Latin Vulgate. It was adopted 
by the Roman Catholic Church, and remains 
their Bible today. 

4. Some Later "Versions 

The Authorized, or King James, Version was 
made by forty-seven translators, and was pub- 
lished in 1611. The translators were the best 
scholars of the time, and they spent nearly 
three years on the task. The work was done 



English Versions of the Bible 279 

under the patronage of James I, and the version 
passed slowly, against bitter opposition, into 
universal favor. The Revised Version was 
made under the auspices of the Church of En- 
gland, which formed two companies of distin- 
guished scholars from all denominations, one 
for the Old Testament and one for the New, 
with corresponding American companies work- 
ing in close co-operation. After more than ten 
years' work, the Revised New Testament was 
published, in 1881 ; and after four more years, 
in 1885, the Revised Old Testament. "In 1901 
(having waited according to agreement) the 
American revisers published the American Re- 
vision, containing their own preferences, so far 
as they had not been adopted by the English 
companies, and making many improvements. ' ' 
The revisers substituted modern English for 
the English of three hundred years before, 
adopted a paragraph arrangement, indicated 
the poetry, and produced a more accurate 
translation than the King James revisers, for 
the reason that they were better equipped and 
had access to a much larger number of manu- 
scripts, versions and quotations. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Name at least five English versions of the 
Bible. 



280 Sunday School Experience 

2. Tell what you can about Wyclif and his 
work. 

3. When did the chapter headings first ap- 
pear? The verse divisions? 

4. Show that the Revised Versions are bet- 
ter than the King James Version. 



LESSON XXXVI 
THE APOCBYPHAL BOOKS 

The word apocryphal means non-canonical, 
uninspired, not belonging to the Bible, though 
being somewhat like the writings of the Bible. 
The original word was Greek, and meant hid- 
den, passing through several stages of meaning 
before it received the sense which we now give 
to it. 

L Their Value 

The Roman Catholic Church at the Council 
of Trent, 1545 A. D., declared by vote that the 
Old Testament apocrypha were equal in author- 
ity to the canonical books of the Bible, but 
among non-Catholics they are not usually con- 
sidered as belonging to the Bible at all, though 
they are sometimes printed with the Bible. 
The apocryphal books are inferior to the books 
of the Bible, both in contents and style, but 
they have a certain value in that they throw 
light on the times in which they were written 
— especially the Old Testament apocrypha. 



282 Sunday School Experience 

2. Old Testament Apocrypha 

"It is safe to say that the Jews never have 
recognized as belonging to the Canon of Scrip- 
tures any other books than those which now 
constitute our Old Testament." The Old Tes- 
tament apocrypha were written during the last 
few centuries before Christ, and they reflect 
the life and thought of Judaism during that 
time. The most important of these books are 
the following: First Esdras, a revision of the 
canonical Ezra, with some changes; Tdbit and 
Judith, two legendary narratives of the time of 
the captivity written to lead the Jews to ad- 
here strictly to the law; The Wisdom of Solo- 
mon, written by an Alexandrian Jew, setting 
forth the glory and value of wisdom and warn- 
ing against idolatry ; First Maccabees, sl reliable 
history of the period 175-135 B. C. ; Second Mac- 
cabees, a mixture of history and story told for 
religious edification. Others of these books are 
the Rest of Esther, Ecclesiaticus, Baruch, the 
Song of the Three Holy Children, the History 
of Susannah, and the History of Bel and the 
Dragon. 

8. New Testament Apocrypha 

"The New Testament Apocrypha are delib- 
erate attempts to fill in the gaps of the New 



The Apocryphal Books 283 

Testament story in the life of Jesus, to further 
heretical ideas by false claims of authority, and 
to amplify the prophecies of Jesus by revela- 
tions given the apostles/' These books are nu- 
merous, and they were written during the first 
few centuries after Christ. Some of these apoc- 
ryphal books are the Gospel According to the 
Hebrews, the Gospel According to the Egyp- 
tians, the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel 
of Thomas or the Gospel of the Infancy. The 
last named gives stories of the life of Jesus 
from the fifth to the twelfth year and makes 
him at this time a miracle-worker to satisfy his 
own whims and ambitions. 

"The love of the marvelous in these crea- 
tions of the imagination and their vivid presen- 
tation of some special teaching made them very 
popular. They have been a fruitful source of 
sacred legends and ecclesiastical traditions. It 
is to these books that we must look for the 
origin of some of the dogmas of the Roman 
Catholic Church." 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Explain the word apocryphal. 

2. What is the value of the apocryphal 
books? 

3. Describe the Old Testament apocrypha. 

4. Tell something of the New Testament 
apocrypha. 



284 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXXVII 
THE BIBLE FROM GOD 

Many reasons have been given for believing 
that the Bible is from God. A few of these are 
here presented. 

1. Its Gradual Growth 

The fact that the Bible does not claim to have 
dropped down out of Heaven, suddenly, but to 
have come into existence gradually as a slow 
growth, is in itself an appeal in favor of its 
divine origin. This slow growth eliminates the 
probability of fraud. 

2. Its Human Element 

It seems reasonable that God should have 
chosen to reveal himself to man through man — 
that he should have chosen to reveal himself 
through many different kinds of men during a 
period of many centuries. These writers lived 
their own lives and thought their own thoughts 
and spoke their own language and had their 
own style and told their own experiences. They 
were rational in their methods — they got infor- 



The Bible From God 



mation from others, many of them making use 
of existing documents. Their writings are the 
gold of God's truth bearing the stamp of 
human personality. 

8. Its Careful Transmission 

It is better that we have not the original 
writings, for these would have become objects 
of superstitious veneration. There are so many 
evidences of the exercise of the greatest care in 
the making and preservation of the copies of 
the Scriptures, and so stupendous have been 
the labors of numerous eminent biblical 
scholars in studying and comparing the manu- 
scripts and versions, that we may be reasonably 
certain, despite many unimportant variations, 
that the Bible of our times is very close in 
thought and teaching to the original Script- 
ures. 

4. Its Unity 

The parts of the Bible fit together, and they 
must have had a common author. These sixty- 
six books written in different languages by dif- 
ferent types of men in different ages have a 
common theme and purpose, forming a consist- 
ent progressive revelation. It does not seem 



286 Sunday School Experience 

reasonable to believe that this could have just 
happened. 

5. Its Superior Teachings 

The Bible contains more moral truth than all 
the writings of the other religions combined, 
and presents it in better form. Confucianism 
does not recognize man's moral nature and 
says nothing of his relation to God, Brahman- 
ism is a kind of fatalism that deifies evil as well 
as good, Buddhism is a mass of pessimism, and 
Mohammedanism teaches that the highest good 
is the sensuous happiness of the individual. 
The teaching of the Bible culminates in the life 
and sayings of Jesus. 

6. Its Uniyersal Appeal 

Other religions are ethnic, or national 
religions, but the religion of the Bible is the 
universal religion. The Bible " finds' ' man and 
satisfies the thirst of his soul, no matter what 
is his age or his nationality or his circum- 
stances. The Bible has exerted more influence 
for good in the world than all other writings 
combined. Where the Bible is most read and 
followed, there is most purity and happiness^ in 
the nation and state and community and home 
and individual. 



The Bible From God 287 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What is the significance of the gradual 
growth of the Bible? 

2. Discuss the human element in the Bible. 

3. What can be said as to the careful trans- 
mission of the Scriptures ? 

4. Discuss one of the last three paragraphs 
of this lesson. 



288 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXXVIII 

THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE 

The Bible is not merely literature, but it is 
literature — and literature of a high order. 
The Bible contains both prose and poetry. The 
poetry is not based on rhyme or meter but on 
rhythm and "parallelism," one clause balanc- 
ing another, giving the same meaning in dif- 
ferent words or a contrasted meaning or com- 
pleting the meaning. Bible poetry is careless 
of form, but is rich in fine feeling and in the 
thought. 

1. Legal Literature 

This literature is found mainly in Exodus, 
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and is 
made up of laws, statutes, precepts and 
judgments, given with their historical setting. 
This legal literature might be classed as con- 
stitutional history. Part of it might be class- 
ed as oratory. The book of Deuteronomy is an 
oratorical masterpiece. 

2. Historical Literature 

Interwoven with the Bible history, is match- 



The Bible as Literature 289 

less biography. This historical and biographic- 
al literature is found mainly in the Old 
Testament books from Joshua to Esther and 
in the New Testament Gospels and Acts. Much 
of this history is in the form of stories, as in 
Genesis. Many of the Bible stories are in the 
epic style. The book of Ruth is a beautiful love 
story — "an epic idyl." 

8. Prophetical Literature 

The prophecies are found chiefly in the Old 
Testament books Isaiah to Malachi and in the 
New Testament Revelation. Also there are 
sayings of the early prophets in the historical 
books. The prophets were preachers and 
teachers, and their written prophecies are ser- 
mons and outlines of teaching, some in prose 
and others in poetry. Prediction is only a 
small element in prophecy. The prophecies 
sometimes take the form of lyrics, visions, 
revelations, parables, dialogues, dramatic 
rhapsodies. 

4. Wisdom Literature 

The wisdom literature is found chiefly in 
Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of 
Solomon. The Jews as a people were not 
given to philosophy, but their philosophy so 



290 Sunday School Experience 

far as it was formulated, is found in their wis- 
dom literature. Their wisdom sayings grew 
out of their experiences and hopes. The 
simplest form is the proverb — a simple verse 
maxim, a riddle, or a prose maxim. Some- 
times the proverb is expanded into an epigram 
or into a longer poem. Sometimes the thought 
is enlarged and put into the essay form. The 
book of Ecclesiastes is a series of essays bound 
together by one plan — a study of life-objects. 
Solomon's Song is an exquisite idyl. Job may 
be called a dramatic dialogue, though it is not 
really drama. It might be called a series of 
orations. 

5. Deyotional Literature 

The book of Psalms is the great devotional 
book of the Bible — the prayer-book and 
hymn-book of the Jews. Besides this great 
book of devotional poetry, there are many 
other sections of the Bible that might be called 
devotional. Among the Psalms are odes, 
lyrics, songs, and elegies. 

6. Epistolary Literature 

There are epistles in the Old Testament, but 
most of the letters of the Bible are found in 
the New Testament, in the writings of Paul, 



The Bible as Literature 291 

Peter, John and others. These letters are 
written to individuals, to churches, and to 
races. Some of the letters are doctrinal 
treatises, some are fervent exhortations, and 
others deal in- personalities. Usually these let- 
ters partake of the nature of orations. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Where is the legal literature of the 
Bible found? 

2. Where is the historical and biographical 
literature of the Bible found? 

3. Discuss the prophetical literature of the 
Bible. 

4. Say something regarding the wisdom, 
devotional and epistolary literature of the 
Bible. 



292 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XXXIX 

THE BIBLE BY PERIODS 

It is well to get a bird's-eye view of the 
Bible as a whole, taking it by periods. The 
Bible history may be divided into thirteen 
periods. 

1. Beginnings and Patriarchs 

First is the period of beginnings, up to 2000 
B. C, as recorded in Genesis 1-11, and it covers 
more time than all the rest of the Bible. Sec- 
ond is the patriarchal period, about 400 years in 
length, 2000 to 1600 B. C, described in Gene- 
sis 12-50. Here is the beginning of the Hebrew 
race, the chosen people. Here is religion in 
the family. The great men of the period are 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Some 
scholars place this period later. 

2. Delirerers and Judges 

Third is the period of Moses and Joshua, last- 
ing about 150 years, 1400-1250 — placed later 
by some — described in Exodus, Leviticus, 
Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua. Here we 



The Bible by Periods 293 

see the nation in conscious struggle towards 
national organization, after 200 years of 
growth and slavery in Egypt. Moses is the 
deliverer, leader and law-giver. Joshua is the 
warrior, and he conquers the promised land 
and assigns to the various tribes their inheri- 
tance. Fourth is the period of the Judges, last- 
ing about 200 hundred years, probably 1250- 
1050, the dark ages, described in Judges, Ruth, 
and I Samuel 1-7. Here we have exploits by a 
succession of military heroes. 

8, The Kings and Exile 

Fifth is the period of the United Kingdom, 
lasting about 119 years, probably 1050-931 or 
1060-960, described in I Samuel 8 to I Kings 
11 and I Chronicles 10 to II Chronicles 9. The 
theocracy becomes a constitutional monarchy. 
The great leaders are Saul, David, and Solo- 
mon. Sixth is the period of the Divided King- 
dom, lasting about 344 years or longer, prob- 
ably 931 or 960 to 586, described in I Kings 12 
to II Kings 25 and II Chronicles 10-36 and in 
the poetical and prophetical books of the 
period. Here we see division and decline. 
Seventh is the period of the Babylonian exile, 
lasting about 50 years, 586-536, described in 
Daniel and Ezekiel. 



294 Sunday School Experience 

4. Restoration and Maccabees 

Eighth is the period from the restoration to 
the Maccdbean revolt, lasting about 369 years, 
probably 535-166, described in Ezra, Nehe- 
miah, Esther, and in Josephus and some of the 
apocryphal books. Here we have the rise of 
Judaism. Ninth is the period from the Macca- 
bean revolt to Jesus, lasting 161 years, 166-5, de- 
scribed in Josephus and the Old Testament 
Apocrypha. Here we have the development of 
legalism. 

5. Jesns to Revelation 

The other periods are the following : Tenth, 
the life of Jesus, 34 years, 5 B. C. to 30 A. D. ; 
eleventh, labors of Peter and his associates, 15 
years, 30-45 A. D. ; twelfth, missionary labors 
of Paul and his associates, 22 years, 45-67 A. D. ; 
thirteenth, closing labors of John and his asso- 
ciates, 32 years, 68-100 A. D. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Give from memory the names of the 
thirteen periods, with dates. 

2. Give from memory the length of each of 
the last nine periods. 



The Bible bj Periods 295 

3. Characterize briefly the patriarchal 
period. 

4. Characterize briefly the period of Moses 
and Joshua. 



2% Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XL 

THE OLD TESTAMENT WORLD 

The Old Testament world can be understood 
only as it is studied in its geographical set- 
ting. The Old Testament world includes most 
of the lands lying around the Mediterranean 
and Red seas and along the Euphrates and 
Tigris rivers, in the western and southwestern 
part of Asia and the northeastern corner of 
Africa. 

1. Canaan, or Palestine 

Canaan, "the promised land," later called 
Palestine, a form of Philistia, was the center 
of the Old Testament world. Palestine proper, 
in its narrowest limits, extended from the 
Mediterranean Sea on the west to the Jordan 
River on the east, and from Dan at the north to 
Beersheba at the south, about 140 miles from 
north to south and averaging about forty miles 
in width — about the size and shape of New 
Hampshire. 

Physically this land is divided into the low 
Mediterranean Plain, the high Hill Country 
and the deep Jordan Valley, with the Eastern 



The Old Testament World 297 

Table-land beyond. Palestine was the "high 
bridge" connecting Europe, Asia and Africa, 
being near the great nations and yet separated 
from them by natural barriers. "In their 
earlier days the Hebrews enjoyed that seclu- 
sion which was so necessary for the develop- 
ment of their national and religious life. When 
this had been realized, they were again 
thrown, by virtue of their location, into the 
tempestuous stream of that ancient world, to 
learn new lessons in their struggle for exis- 
tence, and in turn to impart their message to 
humanity. ' ' 

This land afforded a great variety of 
climate, and was exceedingly fertile. Before 
the conquest under Joshua, the inhabitants 
were chiefly descendants of Ham — Canaanites, 
Philistines, Phoenicians, Amorites, Anakim, 
Horites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Hivites, Hittites. 
After the conquest, the divisions of the land 
were named after the tribes of Israel among 
whom it was divided. Under the kings, the 
south part of the country became the Kingdom 
of Judah, and the north the Kingdom of Is- 
rael. Some of the principal cities were 
Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethel, Gilgal, Shiloh, 
Shechem, Samaria, and Joppa. 

2. Other Old Testament Lands 

The lower Tigris-Euphrates valley was the 



Sunday School Experience 



original home of the Hebrews, and later was 
the home of many of their enemies. It was a 
fertile land, and it supported a sturdy civiliza- 
tion. Here were Chaldea and Assyria and 
Mesopotamia, with Persia on the east ana Ar- 
menia on the north. Here were Ur and Haran 
and Babylon and Nineveh, and probably the 
Garden of Eden. 

Syria was north of Palestine and west of 
Mesopotamia, with Damascus as capital, now 
the oldest city in the world. Egypt, the north- 
east corner of Africa, southwest of Palestine, 
was the land of Hebrew bondage. This was 
the home of a great civilization, and exerted a 
marked influence upon the Hebrews. East of 
Egypt and south of Palestine, is the peninsula 
of Sinai, the scene of the giving of the law and 
of the wanderings. East of the northern 
plateau of Sinai, are the mountains of Edom, 
and east of Edom is the desert of Arabia. 
North of Edom is Moab, and north of Moab is 
Gilead, and north of Gilead is Bashan. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Describe ancient Palestine. 

2. Name some of the early inhabitants of 
Palestine. 



The Old Testament World 



3. Tell something of the original home of 
the Hebrews. 

4. Where were Syria, Egypt, Sinai, Bdom, 
Moab, Gilead, Bashan? 



300 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XLI 
THE OLD TESTAMENT BY BOOKS 

The aim of this lesson is to indicate briefly 
the place and purpose of the books of the Old 
Testament. 

1. The Books of the Law 

Of the many views as to the authorship of 
the five "legal" books, the principal ones are 
the following: (1) Moses wrote all, making 
use of existing documents; (2) Moses wrote 
only part, various others doing most of the 
writing; (3) Moses wrote none of them, the 
writing being done by others later. Genesis, 
"the book of beginnings," gives a poetic 
description of creation and traces the early 
history of the human race and of the Hebrew 
race. Exodus tells the story of the bondage of 
the Hebrews in Egypt, the deliverance under 
Moses, the giving of the law, and the account 
of the tabernacle. Leviticus, the ceremonial 
book, contains an elaborate ritual. Numbers 
continues the history found in Exodus, giving 
the census of the tribes, the wilderness wan- 
derings, and the march to the plains east of 



The Old Testament by Books 301 

Jordan. Deuteronomy, "the law repeated,'' 
gives a restatement of the Mosaic legislation 
in the form of a series of discourses. 

2. The Books of History 

Sometimes these books are divided into 
eight prophetic and four priestly histories. 
Joshua continues the narrative of the penta- 
teuch, telling the story of the conquest of 
Canaan and of the allotment of the land, clos- 
ing with two addresses. Judges and Ruth, 
probably written by Samuel, give sketches of 
the turbulent times of Israel's early life under 
the judges, i" and II Samuel, author unknown, 
opens with a scene in the age of the judges, 
and carries the history through the reigns of 
Saul and David. I and II Kings, authors un- 
known, begin with the death of David and 
close with the captivity of Judah, 586 B. C, 
covering most of the national history of 
Israel. I and II Chronicles, "Annals of Days," 
"are parallel with the entire account of the 
prophetic histories" and are concerned mainly 
with Judah. Ezra gives the story of the re- 
turn from exile, the rebuilding of the temple, 
and the mission and reforms of Ezra. Nehe- 
miah tells of the two visits of Nehemiah to 
Jerusalem, and of his reforms. Esther tells 
the story of the deliverance of the Jews in the 



302 Sunday School Experience 

Persian Empire from fearful destruction. 

3. The Books of Poetry 

Job presents, in dramatic form, the struggles 
of a soul with the problem of human suffering. 
Psalms is the great prayer and praise book of 
the Jews. Proverbs is a collection of wisdom 
sayings gathered from various thinkers. 
Ecclesiastes deals with the problems of "high- 
est good." The Song of Solomon is a song of 
true love. Lamentations, ascribed to Jeremiah, 
is a collection of five elegies, expressing sor- 
row for the wretched condition of Jerusalem. 

4. The Books of Prophets 

Amos was written about 750 B. C. by Amos, 
a herdsman of the Southern Kingdom, who 
prophesied at Bethel in the Northern King- 
dom. Hosea, 745-735, preached in the North- 
ern Kingdom. Isaiah began his great work 
probably about 734. Many scholars refer the 
latter part of the book of Isaiah to the later 
years of the exile. Micah prophesied for six- 
teen years in the eighth century, in the 
Southern Kingdom. Ndhum, about 650, con- 
tains prophecies of the approach of the doom 
of Nineveh. Zephaniah, about 630, from the 
wickedness of the reign of Manasseh, prophe- 



The Old Testament by Books 303 

sied concerning the threatened "Day of the 
Lord." Habdhkukj probably about 600, pict- 
ured the Babylonian power as the scourge of 
Jehovah in the "Day of the Lord." Jeremiah 
contains the prophet's messages from his call, 
626, until after the destruction of Jerusalem. 
Obadiah, about 580, is a denunciation of Edom. 
Ezekiel was the great prophet of the exile. 
Haggai and Zechariah were the first prophets of 
the restoration. Malachi was closely connect- 
ed with the reform measures of Ezra and 
Nehemiah, Joel, Jonah and Daniel are various- 
ly placed. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Glance through the pages of the books 
of the Old Testament as you read this lesson. 

2. Indicate the place and purpose of the 
books of the law. 

3. Indicate the place and purpose of the 
books of history. 

4. Indicate the place and purpose of five 
books of prophecy. 



304 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XLII 
STUDYING THE PSALMS 

The Psalter, the 150 Psalms, "comes closer 
to the heart and conscience of the universal 
man than any other book in the Bible." It is 
a book of life, temporal as well as eternal. The 
Psalms grew out of human experiences, and 
they meet human needs in all ages. 

1. The Language of the Psalms 

The Psalms were written originally in 
Hebrew poetry. The Hebrews had the poetic 
temperament. Their poetry was quite differ- 
ent from ours. Their poetic thoughts and 
feelings were expressed in forms of parallel- 
ism, two or more lines being bound together 
by similarity, by contrast, or by an expansion 
in the second line of the thought in the first — 
(1) Synonymous Parallelism, "Why do the 
heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain 
thing?" (2) Antithetic Parallelism, "A 
wise son maketh a glad father, But a foolish 
son is the heaviness of his mother." (3) 
Synthetic Parallelism, "The law of the Lord is 
perfect, Restoring the soul." 



Studying the Psalms 305 

2. The Authorship of the Psalms 

The titles which some of the Psalms have 
are very old, and they represent early tradi- 
tion, but they are not a part of the inspired 
originals, and they may or may not indicate 
the real authorship. Tradition assigns seven- 
ty-four of the Psalms to David, but many crit- 
ics do not think he wrote so many, and some 
critics say that he did not write any of them. 
Psalms 8, 19, 23 and 29 seem to fit into his 
early life; Psalms 59, 54, 34 and others into 
the period of his persecution by Saul; Psalms 
101, 15, 24 and others into the time of the 
bringing of the ark to Jerusalem; Psalms 20, 
21, 110, 2 and others into the period of his 
wars; Psalms 51 and 52 into the time of his 
sin ; Psalms 63, 3, 4 and others into the time of 
the revolt of Absalom. Many of the Psalms 
were written after the time of David, some of 
them several hundred years later. 

8. Subject Matter of the Psalms 

The Psalms cover a wide range of subject 
matter, some of the topics treated being the 
following: Joy, Psalm 114; penitence, 51; 
grief, 74; trust, 25; praise, 103; sickness, 30; 
confession, 38; thanksgiving, 107; consecra- 
tion, 101; the temple, 84; the city, 87; the 



306 Sunday School Experience 

home, 127; marriage, 45; citizenship, 15; the 
duty of judges, 82 ; the coronation of the king, 
72. 

4. Groups of Psalms 

Some of the Psalms as they have been group- 
ed are the following: (1) The Messianic 
Psalms— 2, 22, 45, 72 and 110; (2) Imprecatory 
Psalms— 137, 109, 69, 59, 58 and 35; (3) Pil- 
grim Psalms — 120-134; (4) Nature Psalms — 
19, 29 and 104; (5) Songs of Deliverance— 46- 
48; (6) Temple Psalms— 84, 132 and 134; (7) 
Votive Psalms — 132 and 65; (8) Processional 
Psalms— 24 and 68; (9) Civic Psalms— 15, 101 
and 82; (10) A Shepherd Idyl— 23; (11) 
Harvest Psalms— 65 and 67; (12) Festival 
Psalms— 81 and 113-118; (13) Hallelujah 
Psalms— 92-100 ; Doxological Psalms— 146- 
150. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. What can you say of the language of the 
Psalms ? 

2. Give examples of the three kinds of 
Hebrew parallelism. 

3. What can be said as to the value of the 
titles of the Psalms ? 

4. Name five groups of Psalms, with ex- 
amples. 



LESSON XLIII 

THE NEW TESTAMENT BY BOOKS 

The place and purpose of the books of the 
New Testament are here briefly indicated. 

1. The Gospels and the Acts 

Mark, the first Gospel in the order of time, 
was written in Rome about 75 A. D., by John 
Mark, a Palestinian Christian, at times the 
companion of Paul and Peter, and pictures the 
public career of Jesus for the instruction of 
Christian Gentiles. Matthew, written by Mat- 
thew, a Palestinian Jew and one of the twelve, 
about 85, consists mainly of reports of the 
deeds and discourses of Jesus, addressed to 
Jews to convince them that Jesus was the 
promised Messiah. Luke, written probably 
somewhere in Asia Minor about 85, by Luke, 
"a Jew of cosmopolitan feeling or a Gentile 
proselyte to Judaism," a physician and com- 
panion of Paul, is addressed chiefly to Gentiles 
and presents Jesus as the friend of sinners 
everywhere. John, written at Ephesus about 
100, by John, one of the twelve, a Palestinian 
Jew, an eye-witness of the events he narrates, 
is addressed primarily to Gentiles to show 
that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. The 



308 Sunday School Experience 

book of Acts, written about 85 by Luke, the 
author of the third Gospel, gives the history of 
the spread of Christianity first among the Jews 
and then among the Gentiles and shows the 
universal spirit of the old religion as fulfilled 
in the religion of Jesus. 

2. The Pauline Epistles 

Paul's letters are the earliest New Testa- 
ment writings. I and II Thessalonians, writ- 
ten about 50, were letters addressed to the 
church at Thessalonica, a busy seaport at the 
head of the Thermaic Gulf, to meet pressing 
doctrinal and practical needs. The first of 
these Epistles was written from Corinth. 
Galatians was written probably from Corinth 
or Antioch about 50, to churches in Galatia, on 
the receipt of unexpected and disturbing news 
of a threatened defection from the Gospel 
preached by Paul. I and II Corinthians was 
written from Ephesus, on the third missionary 
journey, perhaps 54, and were addressed 
to the church at Corinth, to meet a condition 
of unbelief, immorality and factionalism. 
Romans was written about 55, during the three 
months of Paul's third and last visit to Cor- 
inth, to prepare for his coming to Rome, to in- 
struct in the principles of the Gospel and to 
remedy a partisan condition in the church. It 



The New Testament by Books 309 

is the greatest of the doctrinal Epistles. 
Philippians, written about 60, from the prison 
in Rome, expresses gratitude for a gift of 
money and exhorts to harmony and service. 
Philemon, Colossians and Ephesians were writ- 
ten about 60 and sent by Tychicus to Colossae. 
The first was written to individuals, the sec- 
ond to meet speculative difficulties extant in 
the churches of "Western Asia Minor, and the 
third is a beautiful and helpful letter to all the 
churches in the region of Ephesus. I and II 
Timothy and Titus, the pastoral Epistles, are 
addressed to private persons but deal with the 
life of the churches, and were probably writ- 
ten on Paul's last missionary journey, after his 
first imprisonment in Rome. 

t. General Epistles and Berelatlon 

James, about 85, is supposed to have been 
written by a brother of Jesus and deals with 
practical religious living. I Peter was written 
by the Apostle Peter, probably about 75, and 
is an encouragement to persevere in holiness. 
II Peter probably was written also by the 
Apostle Peter. Jude was written probably 
about 85, to combat certain errors, and pur- 
ports to be from Jude, a brother of James, who 
was probably a brother of Jesus. Hebrews, 
written probably about 75, author unknown, 



310 Sunday School Experience 

shows Christ as God's final word. I, II and 
III John were written near the close of the first 
century, by the Apostle John. Revelation, 
written probably 95, by one who styles him- 
self "John, the servant of Jesus Christ/ ' "is 
cast in the form of a vision, or dramatic repre- 
sentation. ,, 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Discuss the place and purpose of the 
four Gospels. 

2. Locate and characterize the book of 
Acts. 

3. Discuss the place and purpose of four 
Pauline Epistles. 

4. Locate and characterize the Epistles of 
Peter and John. 



LESSON XLIY 

THE HOMELAND OF JESUS 

In order to understand the life of Jesus, we 
must know something about his homeland. 

1. Political DiTisions 

The southern third of Palestine between the 
Jordan and the Mediterranean was the prov- 
ince of Judea. This was the strictly Jewish 
section of the land. Here, in Jerusalem, Jesus 
taught, wrought miracles, and was crucified. 
Here, in Bethlehem, six miles south of Jerusa- 
lem, Jesus was born. Here, too, are Emmaus, 
Bethany, Jericho, and the Mount of Olives. 

The northern part of this land was the 
province of Galilee. It had a mixed population 
of Jews and Gentiles. It contained many 
cities, towns and villages. Here, in Nazareth, 
seventy miles north of Jerusalem, Jesus spent 
his boyhood and early manhood. Here is 
Cana, the scene of the first miracle. Here is 
Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus' head- 
quarters during his great Galilean ministry. 

The middle part of this land was the 
province of Samaria, whose inhabitants had 
descended from an admixture of Assyrians 
and Jews. Here were Sychar and Jacob's 



312 Sunday School Experience 

well. The region east of the Jordan was called 
Peraea, and the province north of Peraea was 
Bashan, or Decapolis. 

2. GoTernment and Languages 

Palestine, at the birth of Jesus, was a part 
of the Roman Empire, which then covered 
most of the known world, and was governed 
by Herod the Great, who held the kingdom 
subject to the will of the Roman emperor. 
Shortly afterwards Herod the Great died, and 
the form of government was changed from the 
regal to the provincial, Palestine being divided 
into four tetrarchies. One of these was com- 
posed of Judea and Samaria, under the 
dominion of Archelaus, who died about nine 
years later and was succeeded by a series of 
procurators, of whom Pontius Pilate was the 
sixth. Galilee and Peraea were united under 
Herod Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch. 
Bashan, or Decapolis, was ruled over by Herod 
Philip. "The fourth tetrarch was Lysanias, 
who ruled over the small district of Abilene, 
between Mount Hermon and Damascus." 

"The Jewish population used at least three 
languages: Aramaic, Greek, and Latin.* ' 
Latin was the official language, and was not 
used by the masses probably. The biblical 



The Homeland of Jesus 313 

Hebrew was used in religious services, but 
was not universally understood. 

8. Jewish Sects 

The Pharisees arose as a religious party, or 
sect, more than a hundred years before Christ. 
11 Their fundamental principle was complete 
separation from everything non-Jewish. In 
order to secure this separation the law must 
be scrupulously kept, and there must be no 
adoption of foreign ideas and ways of living 
and no alliance with other nations." Their 
religion became largely formalism. The 
Sadducees were the spiritual descendants of 
the priestly party in Jerusalem, favored alli- 
ances with other nations, and refused to be 
bound by the oral law or the tradition of the 
elders. The Herodians were a political party, 
the adherents of the dynasty of Herod. The 
Essenes were a small sect of Jewish hermits 
who lived simple, strict, moral lives. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Describe Judea, Galilee and Samaria. 

2. Locate on the map these three provinces 
and also Paraea and Bashan. 

3. Describe the four tetrarchies created 
after the death of Herod the Great. 

4. What languages did Jesus probably 
know? 

5. Describe four Jewish sects of Jesus' day. 



314 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XLV 
THE LIFE OF JESUS 

The life of Jesus may be divided into nine 
great periods, with the materials given in the 
four Gospels arranged in chronological order. 

1. Thirty Tears of Private Life 

From the birth of Jesus until the coming of 
John the Baptist. Here we have the birth of 
Jesus in Bethlehem, the presentation in the 
temple at Jerusalem, and other incidents con- 
nected with his infancy, the flight into Egypt 
and return to Nazareth, and his childhood, 
boyhood and youth at Nazareth, with a visit 
to Jerusalem when twelve years of age. 

2. Opening Events of Ministry 

From the coming of John the Baptist until 
the public appearance of Jesus in Jerusalem. 
Here we have the baptism and temptation and 
the choosing of the first disciples in Judea, the 
turning of water into wine at Cana, and the 
sojourn in Capernaum. 

8. Early Judea n Ministry 

From the public appearance of Jesus in 



The Life of Jesus 315 

Jerusalem until the return to Galilee. Here 
we have the cleansing of the temple and the 
discourse with Nicodemus in Jerusalem, a 
period of preaching and baptizing in Judea, 
and the two-days' ministry in Samaria, with 
the discourse with the woman of Samaria. 

4. First Period of Galilean Ministry 

From the return to Galilee until the choos- 
ing of the twelve. Here we have the beginnings 
of the ministry in Galilee, the healing of the 
nobleman's son, the first rejection at Nazareth 
and removal to Capernaum, the call of the four 
and the first great teaching and preaching 
tour, the healing of the paralytic borne of 
four, the call of Matthew, and the discussions 
with the Scribes and Pharisees. 

& Second Period of Galilean Ministry 

From the choosing of the twelve until the 
withdrawal into Northern Galilee. Here we 
have the choosing of the twelve, the sermon 
on the mount, the second great teaching and 
preaching tour, the day of teaching and mir- 
acles by the Sea of Galilee, the third great 
teaching and preaching tour, the feeding of 
the five thousand and the walking on the 
water. 



316 Sunday School Experience 

6. Third Period of Galilean Ministry 

From the withdrawal into Northern Galilee 
until the final departure for Jerusalem. We 
have here the first journey for retirement to 
Tyre and Sidon and return through Decapolis, 
feeding of four thousand and other events by 
the Sea of Galilee, the second northern 
journey for retirement with Peter's confession 
and the transfiguration and foretelling of 
death and resurrection, a discourse in 
Capernaum, and an autumn visit to Jerusalem. 

7. Peraean Ministry 

From the final departure from Galilee until 
the final arrival at Jerusalem. Here we have 
the going into Peraea, mission of the seventy, 
the parable of the good Samaritan, the visit to 
Mary and Martha, the visit to Jerusalem at 
the Feast of Dedication, return to Peraea and 
various discourses, the raising of Lazarus at 
Bethany, the withdrawal to Ephraim, the visit 
to Zacchaeus at Jericho, and various other inci- 
dents. 

8. The Passion Week 

From the final arrival in Jerusalem until 
the resurrection. Here we have the triumphal 
entry into Jerusalem, the second cleansing of 



The Life of Jesus 317 

the temple, the conflict with the Jewish lead- 
ers, the last supper, and the trials and crucifix- 
ion and burial. 

9. The Forty Days 

From the resurrection until the ascension. 
Here we have the day of the resurrection and 
the first appearances, and the subsequent ap- 
pearances and ascension. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Name, from memory, the nine periods 
in the life of Jesus. 

2. Tell briefly the story of the first three 
periods. 

3. Name some of the most important events 
in the three periods of the Galilean ministry. 

4. Name some of the principal events of 
the Peraean ministry. 



318 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON XL VI 

THE EARLY DATS OF CHRISTIANITY 

Jesus had devoted much time to training 
twelve men for Christian leadership, and to 
these and those associated with them, he left 
the continuance of His work. 

1. Jerusalem the Center of Activity 

At Pentecost, May 27, 30 A. D., shortly after 
the ascension of Jesus, there was a great re- 
vival. Three thousand converts were added to 
the company of disciples in one day. The re- 
vival work continued for about seven years. It 
has been estimated that there were as many as 
ten thousand or more Christians in Jerusalem. 
Then internal difficulties arose, and there was 
opposition and persecution from the outside, 
culminating in the martyrdom of Stephen and 
the dispersion of the disciples from Jerusalem. 

2. Revival Work in Judea and Samaria 

Through the preaching of Philip and others 
who were driven out of Jerusalem, many con- 
verts were won in Judea and Samaria. Peter 



The Early Days of Christianity 319 

visited Joppa, had a vision, won the first Gen- 
tile converts, and secured formal recognition 
for them from the mother church. The Gospel 
spread to Antioch and other Gentile cities. 
Paul had been converted and called to be an 
apostle to the Gentiles. This period of seven 
years, 37-44, was one of transition. Christianity 
was stripping off from herself the legalistic 
rags of Judaism and becoming a world religion. 

3. World Conquests 

With the coming of Paul, in 44, to Antioch, 
the new Christian center, to near the close of 
the first century, Christianity made wonderful 
conquests in the world. There was an en- 
larged conception of the Gospel, and an ag- 
gressive movement was inaugurated for the 
Christianizing of the Jews and the Gentiles of 
the world. The Apostles and their companions 
labored incessantly for the spread of the Gos- 
pel, and conquests for the faith were made in 
Asia Minor, Southern Europe, Northern 
Africa, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and even in 
India and China, it is thought. During this 
period of expansion all the books of the New 
Testament were written. 

It is estimated that there were one-half 
million Christians in the Roman world at the 
end of the first century, two millions at the 



320 Sunday School Experience 

end of the second century, and five millions or 
more at the end of the third century. These 
remarkable victories were won, not through 
the preaching of a few, but through the renew- 
ed lives and the personal efforts of the many — 
through systematic, intelligent, persistent 
teaching. 

Wkiting and Discussion 

1. Tell something of Christianity in Jeru- 
salem shortly after the ascension of Jesus. 

2. Tell of the revival work in Judea and 
Samaria. 

3. Show how Christianity became a world 
power. 

4. Give an estimate of the number of 
Christians in the early centuries. 



LESSON XL VII 
THE LIFE OF PAUL 

The most influential of early Christians was 
Saul of Tarsus, afterwards known as Paul, 
the Apostle to the Gentiles. His influence was 
extended through teaching, preaching and 
writing. His life may be divided into four 
periods. 

1. Paul's Life up to His Conversion 

(1) Birth and early training. He was born 
in Tarsus, a Cilician city of importance. He 
was of pure Jewish blood and became a Phari- 
see. Though brought up in a strong Jewish 
colony, he was born a Roman citizen, and was 
considerably affected by Roman and Greek in- 
fluences. He was carefully trained in the 
Jewish schools and was taught the trade of a 
weaver of tent cloth. 

(2) Education in Jerusalem. Later he was 
educated as a Rabbi in the school of the great 
Gamaliel in Jerusalem. He was an earnest, 
honored student, and became learned in the 
Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures and in all 



322 Sunday School Experience 

the Jewish traditions. He became a leader 
among the Pharisees and was bitterly opposed 
to Christianity, as was shown in his participa- 
tion in the stoning of Stephen and activity in 
the subsequent persecution of the disciples. 

2. PauFs Conyersion to Christianity 

Paul had never seen Jesus, but, while on his 
way to Damascus from Jerusalem to persecute 
the Christians, he was suddenly converted to 
Christianity by a wonderful vision of the risen 
Christ. He went on to Damascus, was ad- 
mitted to the company of the disciples, and 
preached the Gospel there until he was driven 
from the city by his unbelieving countrymen. 
Then he went into retirement for a time and 
later returned to Damascus, visited Jerusalem, 
and went back to the scenes of his boyhood. 
For several years, he was preaching in Silicia 
and Syria. Barnabas, the leader in the church 
at Antioch, knew of Paul's work and worth, 
and brought him to that place as his assistant. 

3. Paul's Great Missionary Actiyity 

Paul made three notable missionary jour- 
neys, always starting from Antioch. The first 
of these journeys was made with Barnabas 
through Cyprus and certain cities in Pisidia 
and Lycaonia, provinces in Asia Minor, and re- 



The Life of Paul 323 

suited in the conversion of many Gentiles and 
the founding of a number of churches. On the 
second of these journeys, with Silas, he went 
baek over part of the ground in reverse order, 
and then entered Europe, founding churches 
at Philippi. Thessalonica and Corinth, and 
back to Antioch by way of Jerusalem. On the 
third journey, Paul visited the churches 
already founded, spent sometime at Ephesus 
training Christian workers, and collected of- 
ferings for the poor at Jerusalem. 

4. Arrest and Later Work 

At Jerusalem, he was beaten by a mob of 
Jews, imprisoned by the Roman captain, and 
sent to Caesarea for trial. He appealed to 
Caesar at Rome, where he was sent after many 
months of imprisonment at Caesarea, and 
where he arrived after a perilous and eventful 
voyage. He did not come to trial for two 
years, during which time he was allowed lib- 
erty to preach and teach. Probably later he 
was released, made a trip to Spain, returned to 
Asia Minor, was again arrested and taken to 
Rome, where he was beheaded by Nero. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Name the four periods in the life of 
Paul. 



324 Sunday School Experience 

2. Tell of Paul's birth and education. 

3. Tell of Paul's conversion to Christianity. 

4. Give some account of Paul's missionary- 
activity. 



LESSON XL VIII 

BIBLE INSTITUTIONS AND OBDINANCES 

Institutions and ordinances are valuable 
only as they minister to life. 

1. Sabbath Day 

The Sabbath is one of the oldest of human 
institutions. In the Jewish religion, it was 
made subservient to ethical and religious 
needs. There were strict laws concerning its 
observance. It gave rest from the laborious 
occupations and anxieties of daily life, and 
gave opportunity for worshiping God and do- 
ing good unto men. Jesus taught that "the 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for 
the Sabbath, " and that it was "lawful to do 
good on the Sabbath Day." The Lord's Day, 
the first day of the week, was observed by the 
early Christians as a day of rest and worship 
and service, in commemoration of the finish- 
ed work of redemption in the resurrection of 
Jesus, and the old Sabbath, the last day of the 
week, was abolished. 



326 Sunday School Experience 

2. Sabbatical Tear 

In Old Testament times, the law required 
that every seventh year should be a Sabbatical 
year, during which the land should rest. Every 
seven times seven years came the Jubilee Sab- 
bath, and the fiftieth year was the year of 
Jubilee. Connected with these years were 
certain land and humanitarian laws. 

9. Cities of Kefuge 

These cities of refuge were distributed over 
the land, in easily accessible places, and were 
designed to afford protection for the innocent 
and to make punishment a matter of the exer- 
cise of justice rather than of personal revenge. 

4. Offering of Sacrifices 

Much was made of offerings in the Levitical 
system. The hurnt offering was an animal 
without blemish, brought voluntarily from the 
herd or flock, and was entirely consumed with 
fire. It was a sign of dedication and a request 
for propitiation. The meal offering consisted 
usually of fine flour, oil and frankincense 
mingled with salt. A handful of the offering 
was burned, and the remainder belonged to 
the priest. It was chiefly a thank offering. 
The peace offering was a kind of sacrificial 



Bible Institutions and Ordinances 327 

meal, expressive of dependence on God and of 
fellowship with man. "It developed into the 
thank offering, the votive offerings, and the 
free-will offerings." The sin offering made 
provision for satisfaction for sins committed 
unknowingly. The trespass offering made pro- 
vision for cases in which one had wronged 
another. The offerings on the day of atonement 
were of peculiar importance. 

5. Religious Feasts 

The Passover, "the feast of unleavened 
bread," commemorated the deliverance of 
Israel from Egypt. It began on the fourteenth 
day of the first month, Nisan, March-April, 
and continued for seven days. Pentecost, a day 
of holy convocation, observed fifty days after 
the close of the feast of the Passover marked 
the completion of the grain harvest. The 
feast of Tabernacles, beginning on the fifteenth 
day of the seventh month, Tishri, September- 
October, and lasting seven days, marked the 
completion of the harvest of fruit, oil and wine 
and commemorated the wanderings in the 
wilderness. The feast of Purim, observed on 
the thirteenth and fourteenth of the twelfth 
month, Adar, February-March, originated in 
the time of Esther and commemorated the de- 
liverance of the Jews through her efforts. The 



328 Sunday School Experience 

feast of Dedication, observed on the twenty- 
fifth day of the ninth month, Chisleu, Novem- 
ber-December, "commemorated the cleansing 
of the temple and the rebuilding of the altar 
after Judas Maccabeus had driven out the 
Syrians. ' ' 

Wkiting and Discussion 

1. "What of the Sabbath among the Jews? 

2. Give some statement as to Old Testa- 
ment offerings and sacrifices. 

3. Name five Jewish feasts. 

4. Tell something about the Passover and 
the Feast of Dedication. 



LESSON XLIX 
JEWISH MEETING-PLACES 

The altar was the first meeting-place be- 
tween God and man. In the early times, it 
consisted of a heap of stones or a mound of 
earth, and could be erected by anyone at any 
place, but later there was felt the need for 
some central place of worship. 

1. The Tabernacle 

For about four hundred years, from the 
exodus until the building of Solomon 's temple, 
the tabernacle, or "tent of meeting," was the 
central place of worship. The frame of the 
tabernacle consisted chiefly of forty-eight 
boards fifteen feet long, two feet three inches 
wide, and nine inches thick, made of acacia 
wood overlaid with gold, set up on sills, or 
sockets of silver and held together by five gold 
plated bars on each of the three sides of the 
tabernacle. The tabernacle was covered with 
fine linen curtains, with curtains of goats' 
hair, and with rams' skins dyed red and seal 
skins. There were two rooms in the taber- 



330 Sunday School Experience 

nacle — the Holy Place and the Most Holy, 
which were separated by a veil, the smaller, 
inner, room being fifteen feet each way. The 
tabernacle proper was surrounded by a court, 
or yard, 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. In the 
court of the tabernacle was the altar of burnt 
offering and the laver. In the first room of the 
tabernacle were the golden candlestick, the 
table of shewbread, and the golden altar of 
incense. In the inner room, the Holy of 
Holies, was the ark of the covenant over- 
shadowed by the cherubim. The cost of the 
tabernacle was more than a million dollars. 

2. The Tempi© 

The first temple was planned by David and 
built by Solomon. It was seven years in the 
building. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans 
in 586. In 537, the corner stone of a new 
temple was laid, and the building was com- 
pleted twenty years later, seventy years after 
the destruction of the first temple. This 
temple was rebuilt by Herod the Great, be- 
ginning in 20 B. C, and this temple in turn 
was destroyed by the Romans 70 A. D. The 
general plan of the temple corresponded to 
that of the tabernacle, the building proper 
having two rooms and being surrounded by an 
open court. The two rooms in Solomon's 



Jewish Meeting Places 331 

temple were twice the size of those in the tab- 
ernacle, and in the second temple they were 
still larger. Surrounding the two rooms, were 
a number of smaller rooms. 

8. The Synagogue 

Synagogue means coming together, or as- 
sembling. The synagogue had its origin 
probably in Babylon among the captive Jews 
there who were deprived of the temple ser- 
vices. There were several hundred syna- 
gogues in Jerusalem in the time of Christ, and 
they were found wherever there were Jews in 
any numbers. These synagogues were used as 
places of worship and for teaching the Bible. 
There was teaching in them on weekdays as 
well as on the Sabbaths. Jesus and the 
Apostles taught in the synagogues. 

Writing and Discussion 

1. Describe the first religious meeting- 
place. 

2. Give a brief description of the taber- 
nacle. 

3. Give a brief history of the temple. 

4. Tell of the Jewish synagogue. 



332 Sunday School Experience 

LESSON L 

METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY 

There is probably no one best method of 
studying the Bible. There are many good 
methods. Some of these are here indicated. 

1. Textual 

The careful study of one verse or a part of 
a verse has its advantages, but also it has its 
dangers. Superficial textual study has been 
the source of most errors and isms. To be 
properly understood, the text must be studied 
in the light of its context and historical set- 
ting, and in the light of the rest of the Bible, 
with the aid of good commentaries. 

2. By Chapters 

The study of the Bible by chapters also is 
apt to be mechanical and superficial. The 
suggestions just given will apply here. In 
studying a chapter, one should study its re- 
lation to the chapters preceding and following, 
its place in the book as a whole, its significant 
words and difficult phrases, its theme and 



Methods of Bible Study 333 

thought, its literary features, its persons and 
places, and its practical lessons. 

3. By Books 

A book or a group of books may be selected 
for careful study. If the book chosen be one 
of the minor prophets or one of the great 
epistles, make an outline of the book and study 
the question of authorship and date, the rela- 
tion to other books, the purpose of the writer, 
the literary form, any difficulties, in compari- 
son with some more modern writing, its in- 
fluence in history, and in its relation to your- 
self. 

4. By Periods 

Study one of the great Bible periods, as the 
period of beginnings or the period of the 
United Kingdom. Study the writings that 
describe the periods, the dates and the charac- 
ter of the times, the most significant events 
the great characters, the forces that entered 
into the making of the period, and the practical 
lessons for our times. 

5. Biographical 

Selecting some one of the great Bible char- 
acters, study the world into which he was born, 



331 Sunday School Experience 

the personal environment and conditions 
which affected his life and work, his youth 
and his early work, the conditions which 
modified his life and work as it proceeded, the 
personal religious side of his life, his 
last years and the close of his work, the 
strength and weakness of his character, his in- 
fluence on his own and later generations, some 
similar character in modern life, and what the 
Bible writer intended to teach by telling the 
story of this life. 

6. Other Methods 

Another method is the topical method. Col- 
lect and compare and classify all the passages 
bearing on chosen topic such as sin, forgive- 
ness, love, kigdom, heaven, baptism, Lord's 
supper, teaching, using concordance, lexicon, 
Bible dictionary and commentary. Still other 
methods are the topographical, the critical, 
the literary, the social, the archaeological, and 
the devotional. 

Weiting and Discussion 

1. Name the dangers to be avoided in 
studying the Bible by texts and chapters. 

2. Give suggestions as to the study of the 
Bible by books. 



Methods of Bible Study 335 

3. Give suggestions as to the study of the 
Bible by periods. 

4. Give suggestions as to the biographical 
study of the Bible. 



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